Tag: Times

The New York Instances

Post author By
Post date June 1, 2021

Daily Business Briefing

June 1, 2021Updated

June 1, 2021, 6:20 p.m. ET

Credit…Bing Guan/Reuters

The White House on Tuesday said that a breach at JBS, the world’s largest meat processor, was a ransomware attack, as some of the company’s plants were partly or fully shut down in its aftermath.

“Meat producer JBS notified us on Sunday that they are the victims of a ransomware attack,” Karine Jean-Pierre, a deputy press secretary, told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday. Ms. Jean-Pierre said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was investigating the hack and that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency was also involved.

Operations at most JBS plants were affected, according to Facebook posts meant for employees. About 25 plants in the United States and Canada posted to Facebook that they had canceled shifts scheduled for Monday or Tuesday, with some of them citing “server problems.” Many of the company’s poultry plants were starting to bring workers back Tuesday, but at least three of the company’s 11 beef plants were still shuttered, according to the posts.

“I can confirm that the attack affected the plant in Brooks and the roughly 2,500 unionized workers employed there,” said Scott Payne, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401 in Canada, referring to a beef plant in Alberta. “All shifts were canceled yesterday. The morning shift was canceled today. But the afternoon shift has been rescheduled to operate today.”

JBS has said only that it was the target of an “organized cybersecurity attack” that affected systems in North America and Australia, and that it did not expect that any customer, supplier or employee data was affected. JBS couldn’t immediately be reached to comment. Ms. Jean-Pierre said that JBS had informed the Biden administration that the ransom demand came from “a criminal organization likely based in Russia.”

“The White House is engaging directly with the Russian government on this matter and delivering the message that responsible states do not harbor ransomware criminals,” she said.

In two weeks, President Biden is scheduled to meet the president of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin, in Geneva for a summit in which a variety of cyberattacks, mostly emanating from Russia, are already on the American agenda. One recent breach leveraged software called SolarWinds to infiltrate upward of 250 federal agencies and businesses. It has been considered the most damaging attack because it got to the question of whether the United States can trust its supply chain of software.

In May, parts of the country experienced gasoline shortages after a ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline caused some panic buying.

SolarWinds, the United States has said, was the work of the S.V.R. — one of Russia’s premier intelligence agencies. The Colonial Pipeline attack appeared to be the work of a ransomware group, which Mr. Biden said was based in Russia. The culprit behind the JBS attack has not been publicly identified.

David E. Sanger, Noam Scheiber and Julie Creswell contributed reporting.

— Mohammed Hadi and William P. Davis

Read moreCredit…John Muggenborg for The New York Times

The agency that enforces workplace discrimination laws has said — twice — that companies can make their employees who are returning to the job get vaccinated against Covid-19.

But so far, few companies have decided to move forward, as many are still engaging in internal debates about how to safely restore their offices to operations that resemble what they were before the pandemic.

Pressed by some of the nation’s biggest business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Friday that companies could mandate vaccines as a requirement for coming into the office. The agency had issued a similar note in December.

Some companies say they are wary of setting mandates until the vaccines have received full approval by the Food and Drug Administration, which so far has granted emergency use authorization. Another reason many companies remain hesitant, according to executives, lawyers and consultants who advise companies, is the long list of legal considerations the E.E.O.C. says they must follow before mandating vaccines.

While Saks and Delta Air Lines have said they will require vaccines for at least some employees, most have arrived at a solution more like that of JPMorgan Chase. The bank, which opened its offices on a voluntary basis on May 17 and will require most workers to return to their desks in rotations starting in July, has said it is strongly encouraging but not yet mandating vaccines.

Jamie Dimon, the bank’s chief executive, said at a House Financial Services Committee hearing last week that he felt it was safe for employees to return to the office.

“No one’s being forced to do anything,” Mr. Dimon said. “We want everyone to be vaccinated — we’re not requiring that.”

Vaccine mandates must abide by the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the E.E.O.C. said. That means companies must accommodate employees with health concerns like allergies and keep that information confidential.

“I think that the fact that it takes the E.E.O.C. several pages of notes to talk about all the steps you need to take to reasonably accommodate someone who has a disability or a religious reason why they can’t get a vaccine is one of the reasons why employers might still choose not to mandate,” said Douglas Brayley, an employment lawyer at Ropes & Gray.

Companies are considering whether to offer incentives for employees to get vaccinated, or to show proof of vaccination, while stopping short of a mandate. But even trying to nudge workers can be legally fraught.

The E.E.O.C. said Friday that employers could offer inducements as long as they were not “coercive,” or so strong that they made participation essentially involuntary. The agency did not define what constitutes a coercive incentive.

“They don’t want to go out on a limb when there are still cases yet to happen and allegations have to be made,” Mr. Brayley said.

The agency also reminded employers to consider that access to the vaccine is not yet equitably distributed. Certain groups of people face greater barriers to vaccination, and the agency said employers should consider that in any back-to-work requirements.

A long list of companies, including the Olive Garden parent Darden Restaurants and McDonald’s, are offering paid time off for employees to be vaccinated. Amazon is offering frontline workers who get vaccinated a bonus of up to $80. Walmart workers are being offered a $75 bonus, but they must provide proof they have been vaccinated.

Some companies, like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, are allowing employees who have been vaccinated to go without masks while in the office, following guidance that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued last month on masks and social distancing. Walmart will allow vaccinated employees to go mask-free in its stores and offices. None of the companies require employees to provide proof of vaccination to go without masks.

Workplace policies allowing vaccinated workers to go mask-free raise questions about whether companies are prepared to monitor who is wearing masks.

“When you see an employee without a mask, are you going to run back to H.R. and verify that that person really was fully vaccinated?” asked Jessica Kuester, an employment benefits lawyer at the law firm Ogletree Deakins.

Sharon Masling, an employment specialist at the law firm Morgan Lewis, said companies might be more inclined to mandate vaccines as vaccines became more widespread and obtained full F.D.A. approval.

“I can say that we are getting more questions about requiring vaccines for employees than we were even a month ago,” Ms. Masling said.

Read moreCredit…Jonathan Drake/Reuters

It did not take long. With oil futures rising to levels not seen since 2018, officials from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied producers like Russia met on Tuesday and decided to stick with a plan to gradually ease production curbs agreed to in April.

OPEC meetings sometimes drag on for days, but Tuesday’s gathering required less than half an hour, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the Saudi oil minister, said during a news conference. The rising price of oil probably didn’t hurt.

The group, known as OPEC Plus, is still adjusting to a market that collapsed a year ago when the pandemic took hold of the global economy, forcing a huge cutback in petroleum output. Under the plan the group agreed to in April and confirmed on Tuesday, the oil states will add 350,000 barrels per day in June and 441,000 barrels per day in July.

Saudi Arabia will also continue to unwind the one million barrels a day in voluntary cuts it announced this year. The Saudis plan to produce 350,000 barrels a day in June and 400,000 barrels a day more in July on top of the other states’ expansions.

Analysts say that even with these modest additions in production, the oil market is likely to be tight as increased economic activity leads to more petroleum consumption, burning off the glut that built up in the early months of the pandemic. “Demand growth is outpacing supply gains,” even with the OPEC Plus increases, said Ann-Louise Hittle, an analyst at Wood Mackenzie, a market research firm.

Oil prices rose on Tuesday. Brent crude, the international benchmark, settled above $70 a barrel, while the U.S. benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, gained about 3.5 percent, to more than $68.50 a barrel. Both prices were the highest since October 2018.

OPEC ministers are watching indirect talks between Iran, a member of the cartel, and the United States that could lead to an easing of sanctions and a surge in Iranian crude onto the world market. OPEC figures that the outcome of the talks is still unclear and that a major increase in Iranian oil output, if it comes, is months away.

Prince Abdulaziz said that the issue of Iran had not been discussed during the meeting but that OPEC Plus would continue its recent practice of holding monthly meetings to decide on adjustments in output as necessary.

“We know the situation prevailing today allows us to proceed with what we are planning in July,” he said.

Read moreCredit…Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters

The Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors is expected to have several openings over the coming year, allowing the Biden administration a chance to partly remake a body largely appointed by former President Trump, potentially by increasing diversity and including candidates who are more aligned with its economic priorities.

But there might be one position fewer to fill than many Democrats had been hoping for. Randal K. Quarles, the Fed’s vice chair for supervision, suggested during an event on Tuesday that he might stay at the central bank once his leadership term ends.

Mr. Quarles’s term as vice chair runs through mid-October, and his term as head of the global Financial Stability Board wraps up in December. Once those leadership roles end, he could stay at the Fed as one of its seven governors until 2032.

“I’ll serve out my full F.S.B. term,” Mr. Quarles said during a Politico event on Tuesday. “There’s a tradition in our family that people serve out their full terms on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, even if they’re no longer the chair or the vice chair.”

He said he “hasn’t decided that yet” when asked if that meant he would serve through 2032, just that there’s familial precedent for it.

Mr. Quarles is married to a relative of Marriner Eccles, who was a long-serving Fed chair before the Truman administration declined to reappoint him in 1948. Mr. Eccles chose to stay on as governor until he resigned in mid-1951, and ended up playing an important role in striking the agreement that secured the Fed’s independence from elected government. The Fed has been free ever since to set policy to achieve macroeconomic goals — stable inflation and high employment — rather than partisan ones.

As the Fed’s first official vice chair for banking supervision, Mr. Quarles has helped loosen safeguards put in place following the global financial crisis.

His stance on regulation makes it highly unlikely that the Biden administration would reappoint Mr. Quarles to his leadership role, because his views are at odds with those of the White House. If he were to stay on as a governor, though, it could ramp up pressure on the administration to find a powerful and knowledgeable replacement for Mr. Quarles, one who could balance his influence on regulatory measures.

Richard H. Clarida, the Fed’s monetary policy vice chair, will see his term as governor expire in early 2022. Jerome H. Powell, the Fed’s chair, will see his leadership role end early next year, though his governor role lasts into 2028. Mr. Powell became a governor during the Obama years but elevated to his current position during the Trump administration. There is one open spot on the Fed board already.

Read moreCredit…Amr Alfiky/The New York Times

Krispy Kreme, the doughnut giant owned by the European investment firm JAB Holding, is planning to sell stock to the public.

The company revealed its financials for the first time on Tuesday as it prepares for a public listing in the United States. The company’s sales grew 17 percent to $1.1 billion its last fiscal year, up from $959 million (not $959,000, as previously written here) the year before. Losses, though, nearly doubled, to $60 million from $34 million as the company doubled down on efforts to transform itself. That includes the $20 million it spent on consulting and advisory fees, personnel transition costs, buying out its franchisees and other initiatives.

JAB acquired Krispy Kreme for roughly $1.35 billion in 2016, adding the doughnut seller to a portfolio of consumer brands that now includes the sandwich shop Panera and the coffee chain JDE Peets.

The firm has since taken JDE Peets public and is laying the groundwork to do the same with Panera. The I.P.O. market has been wide open for consumer brands like Oatly, the dairy-free milk producer, and Honest Company, the online consumer products retailer. Digital brands like Warby Parker, the eyeglass store, and AllBirds, the Silicon Valley shoe favorite, are also considering offerings.

But unlike many of those brands, Krispy Kreme is no start-up. The 83-year old company first went public in 2000 before its sale to JAB. It must contend with new health trends, as well as a dining backdrop that has transformed considerably over the past year, as restaurant giants poured money into technology to adapt to the remote needs of customers. Among the leaders was Dunkin’ Brands, which was acquired by Inspire Brands, the parent of Arby’s, for $11 billion last year.

Krispy Kreme says it is not a restaurant but “an affordable indulgence.” The brand said in its I.P.O. prospectus its doughnuts are “world-renowned for their freshness, taste and quality,” and it highlighted its ability to create “major media-driven events,” like its doughnut giveaway to promote coronavirus vaccinations.

Shares will trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the symbol DNUT.

Stocks were mostly unchanged on Tuesday as new data showed evidence of a strengthening global economic recovery but included signs that manufacturers are struggling to keep up with demand, which could increase inflationary pressures.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite ticked down less than 0.1 percent.

Commodities and bond yields saw gains, though they ended the afternoon well below their highs of the day.

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes was at 1.61 percent, up two basis points but down from 1.64 percent earlier in the day. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. crude benchmark, gained 2.1 percent to $67.72 a barrel, as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allied producers including Russia decided on Tuesday to continue gradually increasing production quotas.

Shares of AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest movie theater chain, jumped 23 percent. The company’s shares were caught up in a trading frenzy earlier this year, when small investors briefly pumped up so-called meme stocks. The volatility has continued, and on Tuesday, AMC shares closed at prices not seen since late 2016.

The sudden lack of child care systems at the height of the pandemic has been blamed for causing what many economists call the world’s first “she-cession” — when more women than men, particularly those with children, were either pushed out of their jobs or were forced to downsize their careers.

But a new study published in April by the National Bureau of Economic Research, which analyzed employment figures in 28 developed countries in North America and Europe, presents a more nuanced picture of the damage. The economic damage was indeed worse for women in almost every country analyzed: The number of women in the labor force, compared with men, fell in 18 of the 28 countries, reports The New York Times’s Alisha Haridasani Gupta.

Credit…The New York Times | Source: Matthias Doepke, Northwestern University Department of Economics

And part of the disproportionate impact on women globally was, undoubtedly, related to the extent of school closures. Schools have been closed the longest in the United States and Canada, according to data from UNESCO, the U.N.’s education agency, and employment among women fared the worst in both those countries.

In France, schools were closed for a total of 11 weeks, and employment losses for women were among the lowest of the 28 countries analyzed, said Matthias Doepke, an author of the study and an economist at Northwestern University. However, France also ended up with higher coronavirus infection and death rates than other European countries.

But school closures alone don’t explain how a country like Germany, where schools were shut for 30 weeks, kept unemployment levels for women low, Mr. Doepke said, suggesting that other factors, like labor protections or the ability to work remotely, played equally significant roles in employment.

Credit…By The New York Times | Source: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

One critical difference between the United States and Germany (as well as several other countries in Europe) is the expansive furlough programs, in which workers remained employed and received subsidized paychecks while working reduced hours or none at all. Often, those paychecks were larger for parents.

And the study found that the single biggest indicator of job losses for American women in the last year was actually whether they could work from home in the first place. Among mothers of prekindergarten children who could not work remotely, their hours declined by almost 18 percentage points more than fathers’ work hours. But for mothers who could work remotely, that gap was two to three percentage points.

Read moreCredit…Octavio Jones for The New York Times

As the pandemic hampered factory operations and created chaos in global shipping, many economies around the world were bedeviled by shortages of a vast range of goods including electronics, lumber and clothing.

The shortages reflect the disruption of the pandemic combined with decades of companies limiting their inventories, The New York Times’s Peter S. Goodman and Niraj Chokshi report.

Over the last half-century, Toyota has captivated global business in industries far beyond autos. It pioneered so-called Just In Time manufacturing, in which parts are delivered to factories right as they are required, minimizing the need to stockpile them. Companies have embraced Just In Time to stay nimble, allowing them to adapt to changing market demands, while cutting costs.

But the tumultuous events of the past year have challenged the merits of paring inventories, while reinvigorating concerns that some industries have gone too far, leaving them vulnerable to disruption.

The most prominent manifestation of too much reliance on Just in Time is found in the very industry that invented it: Automakers have been crippled by a shortage of computer chips — vital car components produced mostly in Asia. Without enough chips on hand, auto factories from India to the United States to Brazil have been forced to halt assembly lines.

But the breadth and persistence of the shortages reveal the extent to which the Just in Time idea has come to dominate commercial life. This helps explain why Nike and other apparel brands struggle to stock retail outlets with their wares. It’s one of the reasons construction companies are having trouble purchasing paints and sealants. It was a principal contributor to the tragic shortages of personal protective equipment early in the pandemic, which left frontline medical workers without adequate gear.

Just In Time has amounted to no less than a revolution in the business world, but the shortages raise questions about whether some companies have been too aggressive in harvesting savings by cutting inventory, leaving them unprepared for whatever trouble inevitably emerges.

No pandemic was required to reveal the risks of overreliance on Just In Time combined with global supply chains. In fact, experts have warned about the consequences for decades.

Read moreCredit…Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times

Let’s say you’re thinking about becoming a digital nomad this summer, making the most of your company’s work-from-home policy as borders reopen before the bosses require you back in the office. The streets of Rome and the foothills of Iceland’s glaciers are appealing, but have you thought much about the logistics of keeping up with your job, or about the tax consequences?

As tempting as it all is, the reality can be complicated, experts say.

“The tax system globally right now is not prepared for what the work force is going through,” said David McKeegan, a co-founder of Greenback Tax Services, an accounting firm for U.S. expatriates. “I think at some point we’ll see a system where people are asked on the way in or out if they were working and countries will try and get some more tax revenue from this very mobile work force.”

Here is a look at how working remotely from abroad could affect Americans’ take-home pay, addressing questions such as:

Can I work from outside the United States for a few weeks or months without being double-taxed?
Am I on the hook for U.S. taxes no matter where I go?
Can I “forget” to mention my plans to my boss?

Tags Times, York

Health

Reassessing Boundaries – The New York Occasions

Post author By
Post date June 1, 2021

Consider your comfort levels.

Some people have preferred not to put their private lives on screens.

“This sense of being exposed has been a challenge for people who do not have an environment that they feel comfortable showing to whoever is on the other side of the line,” said Munmun De Choudhury, an associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology who studies health and well-being online. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds who don’t have dedicated work spaces, she said, might not want to share with classmates.

As an actor in New York, Anna Suzuki has fielded a fair number of video calls for work this past year — discussions with directors, table reads for television series and so many other Zoom meetings. She also shares a studio apartment with her partner.

“Because I’m a pretty private person,” Ms. Suzuki said, “I had to figure out a way they would only see a blank wall behind me.”

The solution was to carve out a section of a storage space in her mother’s apartment, conveniently located just below hers. Her “public” perch — an oak-colored table and black office chair — has provided some separation between her work and personal lives, allowing her to turn on and off her “performer brain,” as she described it. It hasn’t always been easy. “I really have to compartmentalize,” she said. “I still had to create a public persona at home.” Yet she also found that being able to stake such a clear divide between public and private was comforting, she said.

If you’re not enthusiastic about sharing so much, that’s OK. “It’s fair for someone to say what their needs are,” Mr. Poswolsky said. “Create a boundary around, ‘I don’t want to let people into my space in a vulnerable way.’”

And consider taking your time easing back into situations that now give you pause. Dr. Creary said she observed two sources of concern for those who enjoyed the firm boundaries they formed working from home and are now anticipating a return to the workplace: that the change of location will decrease productivity because distractions abound, and that it will increase exposure to unhealthy social environments. She suggested two possible strategies to establish boundaries anew: Think about what time of day you tend to work best and plan meetings and other obligations accordingly, she said, and weigh which social engagements — dinners, happy hours and the like — are essential and which ones you can decline.

“It’s about pacing ourselves,” Dr. Creary said.

Keep having tough conversations.

According to Natalie Bazarova, an associate professor of communication at Cornell University who studies public intimacy, social media users largely shared positive personal information before the pandemic. But over the course of the past 15 months, there has been a change. “There is more acceptance of negative disclosures,” she said, citing research she published this year. “There is this common circumstance that we’re going through, and so that shapes our perception of how we think about what’s appropriate.”

Tags Boundaries, Reassessing, Times, York

Health

Summer time Drink Recipes – The New York Occasions

Post author By
Post date May 30, 2021

Like moving turtleneck sweaters to the back of the closet, it’s time to retire well-aged whiskeys and bring on the clear spirits, fruit juices and crushed ice. The warmer seasons demand refreshing drinks, alcoholic or not, served in tall, frosted glasses.

The classic repertoire has much to offer in this category; it’s hard to go wrong with a gin and tonic or a caipirinha. But many of these summer staples could stand a creative update or a touch of surprise without compromising their honest appeal. Detailed below are a gin and tonic with a Spanish twist, sangria made with rosé wine and a Bellini buzzed with one of the new pink Proseccos that did not exist when Giuseppe Cipriani created the now-classic in Venice. There is also a slushy Southside, with rum replacing the usual gin, a Paloma bolstered with grapefruit liqueur and spiked with chile, and a spritzer bejeweled with cherries, which always ramp up the refreshment level of a glass of wine, especially red.

For drinks of the nonalcoholic sort, Agua Fresca is the Mexican and Central American quencher made by simply adding some fruit purée or juice to cold water with a squirt of lime and, depending on the ripeness of your fruit, a touch of sweetener. Almost anything goes for this drink, even non-sweet additions like cucumbers. The Fourth of July American version would be lemonade, an almost blank canvas that can be splashed with summery flavors like strawberry, peach or mango.

Beyond these suggestions, you can add liqueurs like triple sec and elderflower or white rum to make a happy-hour iced tea, or drop a jigger of Sambuca into iced coffee to serve with or instead of dessert. Gin in the lemonade is a quick nod to Tom Collins, a summer standby, and crushed fresh berries enliven chilled sparkling cider, alcoholic or not.

Having fresh fruit, like watermelon and strawberries, on hand will give you access to festive, colorful summer drinks on a moment’s notice. Process some of it, diced, in a blender, stir into a glass of ice with (or without) the spirit of your choice and top it off with soda water. You might consider expanding your wardrobe of fruit liqueurs and spirits beyond the usual orange to include grapefruit, lemon, raspberry and apricot. In small amounts they can brighten up many summer drinks. And for sweetening drinks, especially chilled ones, it’s a good idea to have simple syrup on hand, made by simmering equal parts granulated sugar and water together until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Refrigerated, the syrup will keep for a month.

To serve, warm-weather drinks demand generous glasses; tall ones are best, chilled before filling. Plastic is often the choice for outdoors, and manufacturers have improved the quality of these, though glass has more class. And then there’s the question of straws. Avoid plastic; look for paper in the disposable department, or some of the new, reusable stainless-steel ones. There are also silver straws, long, and often with a spoon at the end for a posh yet convenient touch.

For drinks to serve more than two (or to have refills ready and to transport outdoors), you’ll want a pitcher; some have lids or come fitted with an enclosed receptacle for ice. A long mixing spoon is a useful accessory, and a good citrus juicer is also a worthwhile investment. Frozen drinks also call for a blender to reduce the ice to slush or fruit into purée; there are compact cordless ones on the market that can even go to the beach or on a picnic. And be sure your ice maker or ice cube trays are ready for overtime.

Rosé Sangria

Adapted from Rosie Schaap

Time: 15 minutes plus chilling

Yield: 6 servings

1 ½ cups mixed red and pink fruit, such as raspberries, halved strawberries and grapes, pitted cherries, cubed apple with red or pink skin, peeled pink grapefruit or blood orange segments

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

¼ cup triple sec or other orange liqueur

1 bottle (750 ml) chilled rosé wine

½ cup chilled pomegranate juice

1. Place the fruit, sugar and triple sec in a pitcher and stir to combine. Refrigerate until the fruit softens a bit (at least 4 hours and up to 8).

2. Add wine and pomegranate juice, stir. Serve over ice in wine glasses, and include some of the fruit in each serving.

Spanish Gin and Tonic

Adapted from Socarrat Restaurant, in New York City

Time: 10 minutes

Yield: 1 drink

2 ½ ounces gin

8 juniper berries, lightly crushed

2 dashes Angostura bitters

2 to 3 strips lemon peel (about ½ lemon)

4 ounces good-quality tonic water, chilled

1. Half-fill a large stemmed wine glass with ice. Add gin, juniper berries and bitters; stir.

2. Twist lemon peels over the glass to release the oils and drop them in. Add tonic water, stir and serve.

Blushing Bellini

Time: 15 minutes

Yield: 6 drinks

1 cup chilled peach purée, preferably white (about 2 ripe peaches or purchased purée)

1 bottle (750 ml) rosé prosecco, preferably brut

12 fresh raspberries

1. Place 2 tablespoons peach purée in each of 6 champagne flutes. Slowly add 4 to 5 ounces prosecco, stopping as it bubbles up and continuing once it settles.

2. Drop 2 raspberries into each glass and serve.

Devon Yacht Club Southside

Adapted from “The Ladies’ Village Improvement Society Cookbook”

Time: 10 Minutes

Yield: 2 drinks

2 ounces simple syrup

4 ounces white rum

2 ounces lemon juice

1 ounce lime juice

1 cup crushed ice or small ice cubes

Mint sprigs for garnish

1. Combine the simple syrup, rum and citrus juices in a cocktail shaker with ice; shake.

2. Strain into a blender with crushed ice. Blend until slushy, then pour into chilled goblets or glasses. Garnish with mint and serve.

Freshened Paloma

Time: 5 minutes

Yield: 2 drinks

4 ounces blanco tequila or mezcal

3 ounces lime juice

3 ounces grapefruit juice

1 ounce grapefruit liqueur

4 ounces club soda or seltzer

Pinch chile powder or cayenne

Grapefruit wedges for garnish

1. Combine the tequila, citrus juices and grapefruit liqueur with ice in a cocktail shaker; shake well. Strain into tall glasses with ice and add soda.

2. Dust chile powder on top. Garnish with grapefruit and serve.

Melon Agua Fresca

Time: 20 minutes plus chilling (optional)

Yield: 4 drinks

2 cups cubed ripe watermelon or honeydew, chilled

2 cups ice cubes

Juice of 1 lime

1 tablespoon simple syrup or agave syrup to taste (optional)

½ teaspoon salt, or to taste

Pinch ground white pepper

Basil sprigs for garnish

1. Purée the melon with ice in a blender. Stir in lime juice, syrup to taste, salt and pepper.

2. Transfer to a pitcher, add 2 cups water, stir and chill or pour into ice-filled glasses. Garnish with basil and serve.

Strawberry Lemonade

Time: 15 minutes plus chilling

Yield: 6 drinks

4 cups brewed lemon verbena tea, chilled, or cold water

3 tablespoons simple syrup

Juice of 3 lemons (about ¾ cup)

1 cup diced strawberries, puréed

Lemon wheels and strawberry halves for garnish

1. Place tea or water in a pitcher or other container. Stir in simple syrup, lemon juice and strawberry purée. Chill at least 1 hour.

2. Stir well, pour into tall glasses filled with ice, garnish with lemon and strawberries and serve.

Ruby Spritzer

Time: 10 minutes

Yield: 1 drink

1 glass (4 to 6 ounces) fruity red wine (white or rosé can be substituted)

4 ounces sparkling water

Twist of lemon peel

3 ripe Bing cherries, pitted and halved

Pour wine into a large stemmed wine glass or goblet. Add sparkling water. Drop in lemon twist and cherries and serve.

Tags Drink, Recipes, Summer, Times, York

Business

Reassessing Private Funds – The New York Instances

Post author By
Post date May 30, 2021

If you are thinking of changing careers, starting your own business, or making some other important life change, there may be financial costs, at least in the short term. At the very least, “you should have a spreadsheet of the bills and things you need to cover no matter how the business or sideline goes,” Timmerman said. Try to have a good idea of how many months your savings will be able to cover these bills, she said, or what you will be doing to pay them instead. It could mean selling a car or moving to less expensive apartments.

Assess three things.

Whether you are dreaming of turning your pandemic into a new career and need to decide how to pay for it, or just want to feel like you have a solid financial footing, planners say that im Generally, three major financial areas are to be assessed first.

“If someone has an emergency fund, doesn’t have high-interest debt, and is saving a decent amount for retirement, they’re in a good position to make big changes,” said Brian Walsh, senior manager of financial planning at SoFi, an online lending company. “If you haven’t checked these boxes, you should be more careful.”

BUILD AN EMERGENCY FUND In the past, planners have generally advised people to spend three to six months in an emergency fund to help them through difficult times. Some are now suggesting that the fund should keep you afloat for up to a year.

“Now the advice is even more conservative,” said Dan Herron, certified financial planner and co-founder of Elemental Wealth Advisors in San Luis Obispo, Calif. Isn’t the road getting worse? “

Your emergency fund should cover basic costs such as rent or mortgage payments, utilities, groceries, and transportation. You should also allow enough time to cover monthly health insurance and auto or homeowner (or renter) insurance, as well as credit card or other debt payments.

Whether your savings are healthy or you’re trying to sustain them, the same advice applies: set a monthly savings goal and stick to it. It is even better if you automatically withdraw the money from your bank account every month and have it deposited into your savings, retirement or brokerage account.

Tags finances, Personal, Reassessing, Times, York

Entertainment

Dove Cameron Discusses Her Sexuality in Homosexual Occasions Interview

Post author By
Post date May 29, 2021

Image Source: Getty / Amy Sussman

A few days before Pride Month, Dove Cameron spoke in a touching interview for the summer edition of Gay times. “I have been pointing out my sexuality for years while I was afraid to phrase it for everyone,” said Dove, adding that she refuses to compromise her identity any longer. “I was never confused about who I was. [But] I felt like I wasn’t being accepted and I had this strange story that people wouldn’t believe me. “

After Dove saw that her prominent role models, including Ben Platt, Kristen Stewart, and Cara Delevingne, were her true, authentic selves, she wondered if she could do the same. “It felt like something I could never talk about,” she said. “I feel like the industry has changed a lot as people with platforms have space to be human and not be taken apart. I was very nervous about getting out and one day I dropped it because I behaved like someone who was outside and I realized it wasn’t me. “

“I choose to love myself, to be who I am every day, and not edit myself based on the room I’m in. I don’t apologize for who I am.”

Dove spoke about her sexuality for the first time on an Instagram Live in August 2020. “I went on Instagram Live and said, ‘Guys, I really had to explain something to you. Maybe I didn’t tell you, but I’m super queer. This is something I want to portray through my music because I am”, she remembered. “Since then, I’ve had an amazing relationship with my fans and we have this very safe space that we created.”

Ever since Dove came out as queer, she’s hoped her life as her real self will inspire fans in similar situations to do the same. “I’m not a label person, but I’d say I’m queer and that’s probably my most accurate way of representing myself,” she said. “Coming out was more about who I am as a whole than who I date or who I sleep with. I choose to love myself, to be who I am every day and not depend on myself the edit room I’m in. I don’t apologize for who I am. “

Tags Cameron, discusses, Dove, Gay, interview, Sexuality, Times

Health

Uncover a Water Sport – The New York Instances

Post author By
Post date May 24, 2021

Sales of kayaks – along with other outdoor gadgets like bicycles and camping gear – soared during the pandemic, so you may have to wait a few months for your boat.

“People are rediscovering how great it is to get outside in their own neighborhood,” said Anton Willis, founder and chief design officer at Oru Kayak, a folding kayak company that has since seen a sales increase of more than 100 percent in 2019 and 2020. “We’re building kayaks as fast as we can. Many other companies are in the same boat, no pun intended. “

Pro tip for new paddlers: “People think they’re going to capsize in the water, but it usually happens if you tip over when you get on or off the boat,” Willis said. “Just start in a flat and undulating spot, like a floating dock or a gentle, sandy beach.”

Join the sailing community.

Sailing has a reputation for being difficult and expensive, but that’s not necessarily the case. “Sailing can be very affordable and accessible. It’s not just for America’s Cup billionaires, ”said Bob Ross, president of the Seattle Sailing Club, which teaches sailing and rents boats to its members. “Yacht clubs have sailing schools for children and adults that are very inexpensive.”

Sailing is about joining a community of other sailors. Get it serious and become part of a racing team, or take it easy and drop anchor in a sheltered harbor for lunch. Most sailors love to share their knowledge and welcome newcomers. You don’t necessarily need experience to work on a larger boat. Check the notice boards or show up at the dock at the local sailing clubs – or try the Go Sailing app – to see if anyone needs a crew member.

“You can sign up as ‘rail meat’ – that’s someone who sits on the rail and weighs the boat down on your heel,” said Michael Campbell, founder of the Universal Sailing Club in Baltimore. “It’s the fastest learning environment you’ll find.”

And you don’t need access to the sea to sail. “There are lakes all over the country and each lake has a small yacht or sailing club that is usually very accessible,” said John Kettlewell, executive director of Sail Martha’s Vineyard, a nonprofit sailing organization in Vineyard Haven, Mass. The yacht club sounds snooty, but usually isn’t. “

Tags Discover, Sport, Times, Water, York

World News

Israel-Palestinian Battle: Stay Updates – The New York Instances

Post author By
Post date May 18, 2021

In 2016, then Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in Jerusalem.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Pool photo by Debbie Hill

President Biden on Monday delivered a firmer message in private to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel than he has done in public, warning that he could put off growing pressure from the international community and from Congress to call on Israel to change its approach to Hamas for only so long, according to two people familiar with the call.

The private message hinted at a time limit on Mr. Biden’s ability to provide diplomatic cover for the actions of the Israeli government, as well as a new dynamic in American politics: the president presenting himself as a closer friend to Israel than it might find in Congress.

“We have a new dynamic with Congress playing the bad cop with Israel and asking the president to put a hold on an arms sales while the president plays the good cop,” said Ilan Goldenberg, a former Obama administration official and the director of the Middle East Security program at the Center for a New American Security. “It may give President Biden more flexibility and leverage down the line with the Israelis.”

The tactic — private pressure, combined with the president’s public support for Israel’s right to defend itself — has come under fire from Democratic members of Congress and progressive Jewish groups. But administration officials defended it on Tuesday as a product of Mr. Biden’s decades of foreign policy experience.

“He’s been doing this long enough to know that the best way to end an international conflict is typically not to debate it in public,” the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday.

She added: “Sometimes diplomacy needs to happen behind the scenes, it needs to be quiet and we don’t read out every component.”

Mr. Biden and Mr. Netanyahu on Monday discussed Israel’s right to defend itself against “indiscriminate rocket attacks,” according to the White House’s public readout of the call. In the brief summary, the White House said that Mr. Biden “expressed his support for a cease-fire,” while stopping short of calling for one.

The statement, released Monday, earned Mr. Biden criticism for failing to call on Israel to change its approach despite rising international condemnation.

“While a large number of congressional Democrats and at least one senior Senate Republican have called on both Israelis and Palestinians to reach an immediate cease-fire, the Biden administration has still not publicly done so,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J-Street, a liberal pro-Israel advocacy group that has worked for years to shift the debate as a counterweight to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

“This combination of inadequate ‘quiet’ appeals for de-escalation,” he added, “and otherwise nearly unquestioning public support for and tolerance of the Netanyahu government’s actions, is unhelpful.”

VideoPalestinian citizens, activists, workers and business owners shuttered stores and downed their tools in an organized strike, and took to the streets protesting Israel’s air campaign in Gaza and other measures targeting Palestinians.CreditCredit…Jalaa Marey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel downed tools for the day on Tuesday, as did workers across the occupied West Bank and in Gaza, protesting violence against Arab Israelis, the unfolding Israeli military campaign targeting Hamas militants in Gaza and the looming eviction of several families from their homes in East Jerusalem.

Streets were deserted in Arab areas across both Israel and the occupied territories, as shopkeepers shuttered stores along the waterfront in Jaffa, central Israel; the steep roads of Umm el-Fahm, an Arab town in northern Israel; and West Bank cities such as Hebron, Jenin, Nablus and Ramallah.

Demonstrators gathered instead in central squares, waving Palestinian flags, listening to speeches and chanting against Israeli policies. Outside Ramallah, a group of Palestinians who had gathered separately from the protesters set fires on a major thoroughfare and later exchanged gunfire with Israeli soldiers, officials said.

Since hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes in 1948, they have been divided not only by geography, but also by lived experience.

They were scattered across Gaza, the West Bank, and the wider Middle East, as well as the state of Israel itself. Some struggled under differing forms of military occupation, while others were given Israeli citizenship — diluting their common identity.

But on Tuesday, millions of them came together in a general strike to protest their shared treatment by Israel, in what many Palestinians described as a rare show of political unity.

Credit…Nasser Nasser/Associated Press

Mustafa Barghouti, an independent politician who attended a rally in central Ramallah on Tuesday morning, said the protests constituted “a very significant day.”

“It reflects how Palestinians now have a unified struggle against the same system of apartheid,” he added.

Israel fiercely rejects longstanding accusations of apartheid by Palestinians, a claim now taken up by a small but growing number of rights watchdogs, including Human Rights Watch last month.

Israeli officials say that the occupation of the West Bank is a temporary measure until a peace agreement is achieved. And the blockade of Gaza, they say, is a security measure to prevent Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls Gaza and opposes Israel’s existence, from acquiring weapons. They also highlight how Arab citizens of Israel have the right to vote and elect lawmakers, have representation in Israel’s Parliament, and often rise to become judges and senior civil servants.

Mark Regev, a senior adviser to the prime minister, told The Times last month: “To allege that Israeli policies are motivated by racism is both baseless and outrageous, and belittles the very real security threats posed by Palestinian terrorists to Israeli civilians.”

But many Palestinians on either side of the boundary between Israel and the occupied territories say that they are the victims of the same system of oppression — one that operates with varying degrees of intensity, and offers Arabs varying degrees of freedom, but ultimately seeks to assert Jewish supremacy wherever that system is in force.

“We’re one big family,” said Enass Tinah, a 46-year-old researcher at the Ramallah protest. “It’s the same suffering.”

Some did not participate in the strike — including health workers in northern Israel, who felt they had a moral need to keep on working, and the Arab residents of Abu Ghosh, a town west of Jerusalem known for its good relations between Arabs and Jews.

Other Palestinians simply saw the strike as an attempt to show solidarity with Gaza, and to strengthen calls for an independent Palestinian state.

But for some, the strike, and the unity it implied, was a sign of a new era for the Palestinian cause.

For Ms. Tinah, the old hope of an independent Palestine now seemed unlikely.

A single state for Palestinians and Jews, with equal rights for both, now felt a better goal to Ms. Tinah. “That’s where we’re moving,” she said. “One state with equal rights for all citizens.”

“I don’t know what that looks like,” she said. But, she added, “I think this is the new path.”

Credit…Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times

Fighting between Israel and Hamas extended into a ninth day on Tuesday but subtle signs emerged that the sides were privately edging toward a cease-fire, according to three people involved in the negotiations.

The indications came as a growing chorus of international parties called on Israel, Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza to lay down their weapons.

For the first time, President Biden expressed support for a cease-fire on Monday, but he also reiterated that Israel had a right to defend itself, stopping short of publicly calling on Israel to change its approach.

A person working on the cease-fire talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the negotiations are politically delicate, said Egypt and the United Nations were working together to “restore calm.”

A senior Hamas official based in Qatar, Moussa Abu Marzouk, said Qatar was also involved in the effort.

A senior Israeli government official, who is privy to cease-fire talks and also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Israel was not ready for a cease-fire yet, but acknowledged that it might be soon.

Mr. Abu Marzouk said Hamas was ready for a cease-fire with Israel. But he said the Israeli government was demanding Hamas unilaterally halt its fire for two to three hours before Israel decides whether it will do the same — a position he described as “stubborn.”

“We agreed to an end to the war in a simultaneous and mutual way,” he said.

But he hinted that a new escalation was possible if Israel moved forward with the evictions of several Palestinian families in East Jerusalem or acted violently against Palestinians at the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, two issues that played a role in the buildup to the current fighting.

The Israeli official cautioned against what he called a premature cease-fire, contending that Hamas would take advantage of such an arrangement by regrouping and attacking Israel anew. The official said Israel was seeking what he described as a sustained period of peace and calm.

Credit…Menahem Kahana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

BRUSSELS — European Union foreign ministers overwhelmingly called for an immediate cease-fire to stop fighting between Israel and the Palestinians in an emergency meeting on Tuesday.

All of the member states except Hungary backed a statement that also condemns Hamas’s rocket attacks on Israel, supports Israel’s right to self-defense but cautions that it “has to be done in a proportional manner and respecting international humanitarian law,” said the E.U.’s top foreign policy official, Josep Borrell Fontelles.

He said that the number of civilian casualties in Gaza, “including a high number of women and children,” was “unacceptable.” And he said that the European Union, as part of the quartet with the United States, Russia and the United Nations that seeks peace in the Middle East, would push to relaunch a serious diplomatic process.

“The priority is the immediate cessation of all violence and the implementation of a cease-fire,” Mr. Borrell said.

Foreign policy in the European Union works by unanimity, so Mr. Borrell’s comments were an effort, he said, “to reflect the overall agreement.”

In terms of impact, a few individual European nations tend to carry more weight with Israel. In general, European governments have been supportive of Israel and its right to self-defense against barrages of rockets aimed at Israeli civilians.

Still, as the fighting has gone on, key European countries are pressing for a quick cease-fire, including Germany, which is traditionally a strong backer of Israel.

On Monday, after speaking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany “again sharply condemned the continued rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel and assured the prime minister of the German government’s solidarity,” said her spokesman, Steffen Seibert. “She reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself against the attacks,” he said.

But given the many civilian lives lost “on both sides,” Mr. Seibert said, “the chancellor expressed her hope that the fighting will end as soon as possible.”

On Tuesday, after Ms. Merkel had spoken with Jordan’s King Abdullah, “Both agreed that initiatives for a speedy cease-fire should be supported in order to create the conditions for the resumption of political negotiations,” Mr. Seibert said.

Before the E.U. meeting, the German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said that “right now, ending the violence in the Middle East is the first priority. But we also need to talk about how to avoid such an escalation in the future.”

Mr. Maas added that the European Union “has a role to play here,” both in terms of political and humanitarian action. Germany has pledged 40 million euros for humanitarian aid for Gazans.

The Germans, like the British, have also seen a number of demonstrations against Israel’s military actions, a few of them openly anti-Semitic. France, the only E.U. member of the United Nations Security Council, has also pressed for a quick cease-fire.

On Monday, President Emmanuel Macron of France told a news conference that “there needs to be a process for a cease-fire as quickly as possible and construction of a possible path to discussions between the different protagonists.”

Mr. Macron said he was having discussions with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt and the king of Jordan “to be able together to see how we make a concrete proposal.” It is “absolutely necessary” to end hostilities, he said.

Credit…Said Khatib/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Until Monday evening, the Al-Rimal health clinic in central Gaza City was a key cog in the Palestinian health system. Its eight doctors and 200 nurses administered hundreds of vaccinations, prescriptions, and screenings a day. And Al-Rimal housed the only laboratory in Gaza that could process coronavirus tests.

But then, on Monday night, an Israeli airstrike hit the street outside, sending shrapnel into the clinic, shattering windows, shredding doors, furniture and computers — and wrecking Gaza’s only coronavirus test laboratory.

“During times of war people need more treatment than usual,” Mohammed Abu Samaan, a senior administrator at the clinic, said Tuesday. “Now we can’t give people medicine.”

The wreckage at Al-Rimal is one of the most striking examples of devastation wrought by the nine-day-old battle between Hamas militants and the Israeli military — creating a humanitarian catastrophe that is touching nearly every civilian living in Gaza, a coastal territory of about two million people.

Sewage systems have been destroyed, sending fetid wastewater into the streets of Gaza City. A critical desalination plant that helped provide fresh water to 250,000 people is offline, and water pipes serving at least 800,000 people have been damaged. Landfills are closed, with trash piling up. And dozens of schools have been either damaged or ordered to close, forcing some 600,000 students to miss classes on Monday.

The level of destruction and loss of human life have underlined the challenge in the Gaza Strip, already overpacked with people and suffering under the weight of an indefinite blockade by Israel and Egypt even before the latest conflict.

President Biden added his voice to the growing chorus of international leaders calling for a cease-fire on Monday night, but there was little indication that an end to the hostilities was near on Tuesday morning.

Militants in Gaza aimed a barrage of around 100 rockets at southern Israel overnight, adding to the more than 3,300 fired in just over a week. And the Israeli bombardment showed no signs of letting up, with the sound of explosions once again rocking Gaza before dawn.

General Hidai Zilberman, a military spokesman, who spoke to the Israeli network Army Radio, said there was no plan to suspend operations.

“We have a bank of targets that is full, and we want to continue and to create pressure on Hamas,” he said. “This morning, the chief of staff gave us the plans for the next 24 hours, the targets. We will hit anyone who belongs to Hamas, from the first to the last.”

Credit…Dan Balilty for The New York Times

Hamas said it would not stop its assault, accusing “the criminal Zionist enemy” of “bombing of homes and residential apartments.”

“We warn the enemy that if it did not stop that immediately, we would resume rocketing Tel Aviv,” the militant group’s spokesman Abu Ubaida said, according to Reuters.

While Hamas fighters move through an extensive series of tunnels under Gaza, and as Israeli warplanes drop bombs aimed at destroying that network, it is the people caught between who suffer the most calamitous losses.

Schools in southern Israel within range of the rocket fire have been closed and many families have left the border areas. The constant wailing of sirens warning of incoming rocket fire punctuate daily life, particularly in the south, sending Israelis repeatedly running to shelters.

At least 10 people in Israel have been killed in rocket attacks, the Israeli authorities said.

The death toll in Gaza itself has surpassed 200, including at least 61 children, according to the health authorities in the territory.

And the sprawling humanitarian crisis in Gaza — documented by both United Nations agencies and the local authorities — is growing by the day, adding to pressure on political leaders to pause the hostilities so that relief can reach those in desperate need.

Palestinian activists across Israel took part in a general strike on Tuesday to protest Israel’s air campaign in Gaza and other measures targeting Palestinians.

Even before the current conflict, Gaza was facing an economic crisis and political crisis.

Hamas won elections in the territory in 2006 and took full control in 2007, after which Israel put a blockade on the region, citing the need to curb weapons smuggling. Egypt, which shares a border with Gaza, also put in restrictions that tightly control the movement of people and goods in and out of the territory.

Since 2007, Hamas has engaged in three major conflicts with Israel and several smaller skirmishes. After each eruption of violence, Gaza’s infrastructure was left in shambles.

The result, according to a report last year by the United Nations, is that Gaza has “the world’s highest unemployment rate, and more than half of its population lives below the poverty line.”

The latest round of fighting has crippled that fragile infrastructure.

Six hospitals and eight clinics have suffered bomb damage, according to the United Nations’ humanitarian affairs office, limiting medical treatment available for many people living in the region.

By Monday, Israeli bombs had destroyed 132 residential buildings and damaged 316 housing units so badly that they were uninhabitable, according to Gaza’s housing ministry.

More than 40,000 people have been forced into shelters and thousands more have sought refuge with friends or relatives, according to the U.N. humanitarian affairs office.

“Until a cease-fire is reached, all parties must agree to a ‘humanitarian pause,’” the office said in a statement. “These measures would allow humanitarian agencies to carry out relief operations, and people to purchase food and water and seek medical care.”

Credit…Hosam Salem for The New York Times

The worst Israeli-Palestinian fighting in years spilled into a ninth day on Tuesday as the Israeli military bombarded Gaza and southern Lebanon and Hamas militants fired rockets into southern Israeli towns, hours after President Biden expressed support for a cease-fire during a call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.

Mr. Biden’s carefully worded statement fell short of an immediate demand for an end to Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza, which showed little sign of ending after Mr. Netanyahu said on Monday that his country’s armed forces would “continue striking at the terrorist targets.”

Despite growing concern in foreign capitals over the violence — and among some of Israel’s staunchest defenders in Washington — the region’s heaviest clashes since a 2014 war threatened to escalate. Late Monday, the Israeli military fired artillery shells into Lebanon for the first time since the hostilities began, striking what it said were Palestinian militants who had attempted to fire rockets into Israel.

The Israeli Army said it believed that a small Palestinian faction in Lebanon — and not the militant group Hezbollah — had fired the rockets, most of which failed to reach Israeli territory. The United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon tweeted that it had intensified patrols in the area and that the situation on Tuesday morning was calm.

But the toll on civilians continued to grow. By late Monday, the Israeli bombardment had killed 212 people in Gaza, including dozens of children, and Hamas rockets had killed at least 10 in Israel.

The Israeli Army said that Hamas had fired almost as many rockets in eight days — 3,350 — as it did in the 50-day war the two sides fought in 2014. About 90 percent of them were destroyed in midair by the Iron Dome, an antimissile defense system partly financed by the United States, the Israeli Army said.

The fighting has been focused on the Gaza Strip, the crowded coastal enclave ruled by Hamas, as the Israeli Army bombards infrastructure and underground tunnels that it says Hamas uses to support its military operations. But protests and violence have also erupted in the West Bank and Israel, where Arabs have clashed with the Israeli police and Jewish residents.

The Biden administration has stepped up its diplomatic engagement, dispatching an envoy to the region last week. In a readout of Mr. Biden’s call with Mr. Netanyahu, White House officials said the president had “expressed his support for a cease-fire and discussed U.S. engagement with Egypt and other partners towards that end.” But Mr. Biden had “reiterated his firm support for Israel’s right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks,” the statement added.

The Biden administration previously avoided the use of the term “cease-fire,” with top officials like Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken talking instead about the need for a “sustainable calm” and others referring to the need for “restraint.”

Credit…Hosam Salem for The New York Times

Since Covid-19 first emerged in the blockaded Gaza Strip, a shortage of medical supplies has allowed authorities to administer only a relatively tiny number of coronavirus tests.

Now, the sole laboratory in Gaza that processes test results has become temporarily inoperable after an Israeli airstrike nearby on Monday, officials in Gaza said.

The strike, which targeted a separate building in Gaza City, sent shrapnel and debris flying across the street, damaging the lab and the administrative offices of the Hamas-run Health Ministry, said Dr. Majdi Dhair, director of the ministry’s preventive medicine department.

One ministry employee was hospitalized and in serious condition after shrapnel struck him in the head, Dr. Dhair said in a phone interview on Tuesday.

“This attack was barbaric,” he said. “There’s no way to justify it.”

The Israeli Army did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the strike. Since Israel began its bombing campaign in Gaza on May 10, the army has said that its airstrikes aim solely at militants and their infrastructure.

Dr. Dhair said that he believed the equipment inside the lab was unharmed but emphasized that it would take at least a day to clean up the damage and prepare it to process coronavirus tests again. In the meantime, he said, medical teams would stop administering tests.

Rami Abadla, the director of the Gaza ministry’s infection control department, said that the lab would also be temporarily unable to process results for other tests related to H.I.V., hepatitis C and other conditions.

Over the past week, the authorities in Gaza have tested an average of 515 Palestinians daily for the virus. Only 1.9 percent of Gaza’s two million people were fully vaccinated as of Monday, according to official data, compared with 56 percent in Israel.

After a surge in cases in April, blamed mostly on the highly transmissible coronavirus variant first identified in Britain, new infections in Gaza had recently fallen to a manageable level, health experts said. But with Israeli airstrikes destroying buildings, causing widespread damage and leaving more than 200 people dead as of Monday, United Nations officials have warned that coronavirus cases could rise again.

Unvaccinated Palestinians were crowding into schools run by the United Nations relief agency in Gaza, turning them into de facto bomb shelters. Matthias Schmale, the U.N. agency’s director of operations, said last week that those schools “could turn into mass spreaders.”

Mr. Schmale and the top World Health Organization official in Gaza, Sacha Bootsma, also said that all vaccinations had stopped when hostilities broke out, and that any vaccine supplies headed to the territory had been delayed by the closure of Gaza’s border crossings.

Credit…Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times

The United Nations Security Council held its fourth meeting in a week on Tuesday over efforts to devise a common statement condemning the deadly force used by Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza.

It was not immediately clear whether the council’s 15 members, who were meeting privately, would be able to overcome objections to any common statement from the United States, Israel’s most powerful ally.

Top United Nations officials have said the absence of a singular message from the Security Council demanding a halt to the fighting has not been helpful. “A strong unified voice, we believe, will carry weight,” the United Nations spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, told reporters on Tuesday.

Frustrated by what they see as U.S. intransigence even as the deaths and devastation — overwhelmingly Palestinian — extended into a second week, the representatives of China, Norway and Tunisia put the subject on the agenda for the Tuesday meeting.

Any statement from the Security Council requires all members to approve it. The United States has been the only holdout, irritating even some of America’s closest allies on the council.

“Conflict is raging, resulting in utterly devastating humanitarian impact,” the ambassador of Ireland, Geraldine Byrne Nason, told the council, according to a statement released by Ireland’s U.N. mission. “The Security Council has yet to utter a single word publicly.”

She said “it is high time the Council steps up, breaks its silence and speaks out.”

European Union foreign ministers, who also met on Tuesday to discuss the conflict, overwhelmingly called for a cease-fire. All 27 members except Hungary backed the demand. At the Security Council’s third meeting, on Sunday, the E.U. representative’s statement could not be made on behalf of member states because Hungary, strongly pro-Israel, objected.

Other European member states, such as Austria, Bulgaria and Romania, are similarly steadfast in supporting Israel, while countries like Belgium, Luxembourg and Sweden are more critical of Israeli military responses and expansion of settlements in occupied territory.

But President Biden’s call on Monday for a cease-fire, even without using the word “immediate,” is likely to be followed by other Western nations.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has previously defended American reluctance to join other Security Council members in a statement, arguing that it would not be helpful while intense but private diplomatic efforts are underway to persuade Israel and Hamas to stop fighting.

Diplomats from the United States, Egypt and Qatar, as well as the special U.N. coordinator for Middle East peace, have all been enmeshed in the efforts. The United States is prohibited from talking directly to Hamas, which is listed as a terrorist organization under American law, so Egypt and Qatar are acting as intermediaries for both Israel and the United States.

But neither Israel nor Hamas has shown any indication that they are ready for an immediate truce. At the same time, the Israeli military’s continual bombings and shelling in Gaza, which have killed at least 212 Palestinians there, according to the health authorities in the territory, have stunned much of the world, threatening to further isolate the Israelis and their American defenders.

The president of the United Nations General Assembly, Volkan Bozkir of Turkey, scheduled that body’s own meeting over the Israel-Hamas conflict on Thursday. While that meeting may have no practical impact on events on the ground, a majority of the 193 members of the United Nations are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and highly critical of Israel’s occupation of lands seized in the 1967 war. That gathering could therefore be the biggest stage yet for international condemnation of Israel’s actions.

In another sign of growing exasperation with Israel, King Abdullah of Jordan blamed the escalating violence on what he described as Israeli provocations. In a Twitter post on Monday from the royal Jordanian court, the king said that he had conveyed his view in a phone call with António Guterres, the U.N. secretary general.

King Abdullah’s statements carry weight because his country signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, and Jordan is the custodian of the religious site in Jerusalem that houses Al Aqsa, the mosque where tensions between Palestinians and Israelis played an early role in the latest upsurge of violence.

Credit…Jalaa Marey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

As the seeming intractability of the latest Israel-Gaza conflict provoked concern around the world on Tuesday, the ninth day of fighting was marked by a worrying development: It spilled over into Southern Lebanon for the first time.

The Israeli military said it had launched artillery shells into Lebanon in response to Palestinian militants’ trying to fire rockets into Israel. Fears of the conflict spreading were offset by the fact that the Israeli Army said that it believed the rockets had come from a small Palestinian faction in Lebanon — and not from Hezbollah, the militant group sponsored by Iran.

Amid growing concern in foreign capitals over the violence — and among some of Israel’s staunchest defenders in Washington — the region’s heaviest clashes since a 2014 war threatened to escalate. The death toll in Gaza has already surpassed 200, including dozens of children. In Israel, at least 10 people have been killed in rocket attacks.

As the casualties mount, along with the suffering of those Palestinians and Israelis left behind, several attacks stand out as seminal moments in a conflict that has transformed with surprising velocity, polarizing Israeli society and spurring mob violence on both sides.

Here is what is driving the conflict, and its arc so far:

In the bombardment before dawn on Monday, the Israeli Army said that 54 warplanes used 110 rockets and bombs as they attacked around 35 targets for a period of 20 minutes. Much of the assault was aimed at a network of underground tunnels used by Hamas to move people and equipment. Israeli strategists refer to this strategy of targeting the tunnels as “mowing the grass.” Airstrikes also targeted the homes of Hamas’s military leaders, the Israeli military said.
An Israeli airstrike over the weekend at a refugee camp killed at least 10 Palestinians, including eight children. Mohammed al-Hadidi said that his wife and their sons Suhaib, 14; Yahya, 11; Abdelrahman, 8; and Wissam, 5, were killed, as were his wife’s brother’s four children and her sister-in-law. Only a 5-month-old baby boy, Omar, was pulled from the rubble alive. The attack magnified growing criticism against Israel’s military for the number of children killed in airstrikes on Gaza. Outrage has been fanned on social media where images of children’s bodies have circulated.
On Saturday, an Israeli airstrike destroyed the 12-story Jalaa tower in Gaza City that housed some of the world’s leading media organizations, including The Associated Press and Al Jazeera. The destruction of the building drew global criticism that Israel was undermining press freedom. On Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces tweeted that the building was “an important base of operations” for Hamas military intelligence. But The A.P. said it had operated from the building for 15 years and had no indication that Hamas was installed there. There were no casualties.

Credit…Hosam Salem for The New York Times

A 5-year-old Israeli boy, Ido Avigal, was killed on Wednesday when a rocket fired from Gaza made a direct hit on the building next door to his aunt’s apartment, where he was visiting with his mother and older sister. He had been sheltering in a fortified safe room. More than 3,300 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza this week, the Israeli authorities have said.
The conflict began last Monday when weeks of simmering tensions in Jerusalem between Palestinian protesters, the police and right-wing Israelis escalated, against the backdrop of a longstanding local battle for control of a city sacred to Jews, Arabs and Christians. Among the main catalysts was a raid by the Israeli police on the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, one of Islam’s holiest sites, in which hundreds of Palestinians and a score of police officers were wounded. Militants in Gaza responded by lobbing rockets at Jerusalem, spurring Israel to respond with airstrikes.
The root of the latest escalation was intense disputes over East Jerusalem. The Israeli police prevented Palestinians from gathering near one of the city’s ancient gates during the holy month of Ramadan, as they had customarily. At the same time, Palestinians faced eviction by Jewish landlords from homes in East Jerusalem. Many Arabs called it part of a wider Israeli campaign to force Palestinians out of the city, describing it as ethnic cleansing.
Intense political struggles for leadership of Israel and the Palestinians are part of the backdrop for the fighting. After four inconclusive elections in Israel in two years, no one has been able to form a governing coalition. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on trial on corruption charges, has been able to remain in office, and hopes Israelis will rally around him in the crisis. In Palestinian elections that were recently postponed, Hamas hoped to take control of the Palestinian Authority, and has positioned itself as the defender of Jerusalem.

Israel’s Iron Dome system intercepting rockets launched from GazaAnas Baba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Streaks through the sky left by the Iron Dome systemFatima Shbair/Getty Images
Ashkelon, IsraelNir Elias/Reuters
Ashdod, IsraelMenahem Kahana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Sderot, IsraelJack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Ashkelon, IsraelJack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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As the worst violence in years rages between the Israeli military and Hamas, each night the sky is lit up by a barrage of missiles and the projectiles designed to counter them.

It is a display of fire and thunder that has been described as both remarkable and horrifying.

The images of Israel’s Iron Dome defense system attempting to shoot down missiles fired by militants in Gaza have been among the most widely shared online, even as the toll wrought by the violence only becomes clear in the light of the next day’s dawn.

“The number of Israelis killed and wounded would be far higher if it had not been for the Iron Dome system, which has been a lifesaver as it always is,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said this week.

The Iron Dome became operational in 2011 and got its biggest first test over eight days in November 2014, when Gaza militants fired some 1,500 rockets aimed at Israel.

While Israeli officials claimed a success rate of up to 90 percent during that conflict, outside experts were skeptical.

The system’s interceptors — just 6 inches wide and 10 feet long — rely on miniature sensors and computerized brains to zero in on short-range rockets. Israel’s larger interceptors — the Patriot and Arrow systems — can fly longer distances to go after bigger threats.

The Iron Dome was recently upgraded, but the details of the changes were not made public.

It is being tested like never before, according to the Israeli military.

“I think it will not be a big mistake to say that even last night there were more missiles than all the missiles fired on Tel Aviv in 2014,” Major General Ori Gordin, commander of Israel’s home front, said during a news conference on Sunday. “Hamas’s attack is very intense in terms of pace of firing.”

Militants in the Gaza Strip have about 3,100 missiles, the Israeli Air Force said on Sunday, noting that about 1,150 of them had been intercepted.

“Despite the layers of defense, there is never 100 percent defense,” Gen. Gordin said. “Sometimes the aerial defense will miss or not be able to intercept, and sometimes people will not get into shelters or lay on the ground and sometimes a whole building will collapse.”

Credit…Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

It used to be that when Palestinians were under fire, protests would follow in the streets of Arab cities. But solidarity with the Palestinians has shifted online and gone global, creating a virtual Arab street that has the potential to have a wider impact than the physical ones in the Middle East.

A profusion of pro-Palestinian voices, memes and videos on social media has bypassed traditional media and helped accomplish what decades of Arab protest, boycotts of Israel and regular spurts of violence had not: yanking the Palestinian cause, all but left for dead a few months ago, toward the mainstream.

As Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza stretches into a second week, the online protesters have linked arms with popular movements for minority rights such as Black Lives Matter, seeking to reclaim the narrative from the mainstream media and picking up support in Western countries that have reflexively supported Israel during past conflicts with Palestinians.

“It feels different this time, it definitely does,” said Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, 29, the Palestinian-Jordanian-American founder of MuslimGirl.com, whose posts on the topic have been ubiquitous over the past week. “I wasn’t expecting this to happen so quickly, and for the wave to shift this fast. You don’t see many people out on the streets in protest these days, but I would say that social media is the mass protest.”

Palestinian activists say that they aim to seize control of the narrative from media outlets that have suppressed their point of view and falsely equated Israel’s suffering with that of its occupied territories.

They refer to Israeli policies as “the colonization of Palestine,” describe its discrimination against Palestinians as apartheid and characterize the proposed eviction of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, which helped set off the current conflict, as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing

As images of Sheikh Jarrah, destruction in Gaza and police raids on Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem have barreled from Palestinian online platforms — including PaliRoots and Eye on Palestine — across Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, they have united a new generation of Arab activists with progressive allies who might not have known where Gaza was two weeks ago.

Credit…Pool photo by Ken Cedeno

President Biden’s urging of a halt to Israeli-Palestinian fighting followed calls from Democratic lawmakers for his administration to speak out firmly against the escalation of violence. But unlike during past clashes in the region — when most Democrats have called for peace without openly criticizing Israel’s actions — skepticism around Israel’s current campaign in Gaza has spread to even some of its strongest defenders in Congress.

They include Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Democrat of New York and the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, who told Democrats on the panel on Monday that he would ask the Biden administration to delay a $735 million tranche of precision-guided weapons to Israel that had been approved before tensions in the Middle East boiled over.

Mr. Meeks is a fixture at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, the most powerful pro-Israel lobbying group. His call to delay the arms package came after a number of Democrats raised concerns about sending American-made weapons to Israel at a time when it has bombed civilians, as well as a building that housed press outlets.

A day earlier, 28 Democratic senators put out a letter publicly calling for a cease-fire. The effort was led by Senator Jon Ossoff, Democrat of Georgia and, at 34, the face of a younger generation of American Jews in Congress.

On Saturday, Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey and the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, who is known as one of Israel’s most unshakable allies in the Democratic Party, issued a statement saying he was “deeply troubled” by Israeli strikes that had killed Palestinian civilians and the tower housing media outlets. He demanded that both sides “uphold the rules and laws of war” and find a peaceful end to fighting that has killed more than 200 Palestinians and 10 Israelis.

Though they have no intention of ending the United States’ close alliance with Israel, a growing number of Democrats in Washington say they are no longer willing to give the country a pass for its harsh treatment of the Palestinians. Those most vocal in their criticism of the Israeli government said they meant to send a message to Mr. Biden: that the old playbook he used as a senator and as vice president would no longer find the same support in his party.

“That hasn’t worked,” Representative Mark Pocan, a progressive Democrat from Wisconsin, told a top adviser to Mr. Biden late last week, he said in an interview on Monday. “We’re going to be advocating for peace in a way that maybe they haven’t traditionally heard.”

The strongest push is coming from the energized progressive wing of the party, whose representatives in the House, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, have in recent days accused Israel of gross human rights violations against Palestinians.

Republicans and AIPAC have been swift to warn against any perceived weakening of the U.S. commitment to Israel. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader and a vocal supporter of Israel, condemned Ms. Ocasio-Cortez on Monday for her description of Israel as an “apartheid state” and urged the president to “leave no doubt where America stands.”

Credit…Ahmad Gharabli/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Our Jerusalem bureau chief, Patrick Kingsley, examined the events that have led to the past week’s violence, the worst between Israelis and Palestinians in years. A little-noticed police action in Jerusalem was among them. He writes:

Twenty-seven days before the first rocket was fired from Gaza this week, a squad of Israeli police officers entered the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, brushed the Palestinian attendants aside and strode across its vast limestone courtyard. Then they cut the cables to the loudspeakers that broadcast prayers to the faithful from four medieval minarets.

It was the night of April 13, the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It was also Memorial Day in Israel, which honors those who died fighting for the country. The Israeli president was delivering a speech at the Western Wall, a sacred Jewish site that lies below the mosque, and Israeli officials were concerned that the prayers would drown it out.

Here is his full account of that night and the events that later unfolded.

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Israel-Palestinian Battle: Stay Updates – The New York Instances

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Post date May 17, 2021

Israeli warplanes targeted Gaza City on Monday morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Mahmud Hams/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Israeli warplanes unleashed a fierce air bombardment on Gaza City before dawn on Monday as Hamas militants in the coastal enclave continued to target towns in southern Israel with barrages of rockets, bringing the conflict into a second, grinding week of bloodshed and destruction.

Stepped-up diplomatic efforts led by the United States and a meeting of the United Nations Security Council over the weekend showed little sign of progress. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, speaking on Sunday, said the operation would “take time.”

“We’ll do whatever it takes to restore order and quiet,” Mr. Netanyahu said during a television appearance.

The overnight bombardment came after the deadliest day of the conflict, which included a strike in Gaza City that left three buildings flattened and killed at least 42 people.

The Israeli military said it had been targeting the warren of tunnels used by militants that runs beneath the city and that when the tunnels collapsed, the buildings came tumbling down as well.

Among the dead, yet again, were children. At least 10 in this location. In the past week, of the nearly 200 Palestinians who have died, nearly half have been women and children, sparking condemnation across the world and helping to fan protests, which have taken place in recent days from London to Baghdad to Berlin.

Regional conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians have periodically become conflated with tensions among Europe’s sometimes polarized communities, particularly in countries like France with large Muslim and Jewish communities. Concerns were growing that anger against Israel was boiling over into anti-Semitic violence.

But even under sustained military bombardment, Hamas militants based in Gaza continued to unleash a barrage of missiles into southern Israel — more than 3,100 since the start of the conflict a week ago, according to the Israeli military.

Many of the rockets were intercepted yet again by the Israeli defense system known as the Iron Dome.

Overnight Monday — like every night for the past week — two battles were waged: one in the skies above and another in the tunnels below Gaza.

Israeli experts often describe periodic campaigns as “mowing the grass,” with the aim of curbing rocket fire, destroying as much of the militant groups’ infrastructure as possible and restoring deterrence. Critics say the use of such terminology is dehumanizing to Palestinians and tends to minimize the toll on civilians as well as militants.

The Israeli army said 54 Israeli warplanes took part in the attack using 110 rockets and bombs as they attacked around 35 targets for a period of 20 minutes.

Much of the assault was directed at a network of underground tunnels used by Hamas to move people and equipment — a subterranean transit system that the Israel military refers to as “the metro.”

During the operation, the army said, a tunnel route around 50 feet long was destroyed. Warplanes also targeted the homes of Hamas’s military leaders, the Israeli military said. At least some of those strikes landed near a row of hotels in a built-up area of Gaza City, forcing some guests into a bomb shelter.

On Sunday evening, the general in charge of Israel’s Southern Command, Eliezer Toledano, told the public broadcaster Kan, “It is important we continue to exhaust the campaign that we have entered and deepen the damage being caused to Hamas.”

At least 11 Israeli residents had been killed by some of the thousands of rockets fired from Gaza, the region controlled by Hamas.

Representatives of the United States, Qatar, Egypt and other countries have been trying to broker a cease-fire. In comments to France 24, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt urged “a return to calm” and an end to the “violence” and “killing.”

So far, their efforts have not succeeded. “If it doesn’t want to stop, we won’t stop,” Moussa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official, told Al Jazeera.

Some American officials are urging Israel to halt its operations soon or risk losing ground in the international court of public opinion. Late on Sunday, Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat from Georgia, and 27 other senators called for an immediate cease-fire “to prevent further loss of life.”

Short of a lasting cease-fire, the Biden administration is trying to negotiate a humanitarian pause in the fighting to help Palestinians who have been forced from their homes in Gaza. Similar efforts in the past have been a key first step toward winding down hostilities.

VideoIsraeli warplanes unleashed an air bombardment on Gaza City before dawn on Monday, bringing the conflict into the second week of bloodshed and destruction.CreditCredit…Hosam Salem for The New York Times

As Israelis and Palestinians hunkered down for the second week of an increasingly stubborn conflict, a series of deadly flash points have galvanized both sides in a region where the human cost of war is all too familiar.

Before dawn on Monday, Israeli warplanes bombarded Gaza City, compounding the civilian suffering in the coastal enclave. At the same time, the rocket barrage by Hamas militants continued to take its toll on Israeli cities, including in Tel Aviv, the commercial center of the country, where the bubble of peacetime has been radically punctured.

Here are a few of the major flash points:

In the bombardment before dawn on Monday, the Israeli army said 54 Israeli warplanes used 110 rockets and bombs as they attacked around 35 targets for a period of 20 minutes. Much of the assault was aimed at a network of underground tunnels used by Hamas to move people and equipment — a subterranean transit system that the Israel military refers to as “the metro.” Israeli strategists refer to this strategy of targeting the tunnels as “mowing the grass.” Warplanes also targeted the homes of Hamas’s military leaders, the Israeli military said.
An Israeli airstrike over the weekend at a refugee camp killed at least 10 Palestinians, including eight children. Mohammed al-Hadidi said his wife and their sons Suhaib, 14, Yahya, 11, Abdelrahman, 8, and Wissam, 5, were killed, as were her brother’s four children and her sister-in-law. Only a 5-month-old baby boy, Omar, was pulled from the rubble alive. The attack magnified growing criticism against Israel’s military for the number of children that have been killed in airstrikes on Gaza. Outrage has been fanned on social media where images of children’s bodies have circulated, along with the video of a wailing infant being comforted by his father.
On Saturday, an Israeli airstrike destroyed a well-known 12-story building in Gaza City that housed some of the world’s leading media organizations including The Associated Press and Al Jazeera. The destruction of the al-Jalaa tower drew global criticism that Israel was undermining press freedom. On Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces tweeted that the building was “an important base of operations” for Hamas military intelligence. But The A.P. said it had operated from the building for 15 years and had no indication that Hamas was operating there. There were no casualties.

Credit…Hosam Salem for The New York Times

A 5-year-old Israeli boy, Ido Avigal, was killed on Wednesday when a rocket fired from Gaza made a direct hit on the building next door to his aunt’s apartment, where he was visiting with his mother and older sister. He had been sheltering in a fortified safe room. Nearly 3,000 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza this week.
The conflict began last Monday when weeks of simmering tensions in Jerusalem between Palestinian protesters, the police and right-wing Israelis escalated, against the backdrop of a longstanding local battle for control of a city sacred to Jews, Arabs and Christians. Among the main catalysts was a raid by the Israeli police on the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, one of Islam’s holiest sites, in which hundreds of Palestinians and a score of police officers were wounded. Militants in Gaza responded by lobbing rockets at Jerusalem, spurring Israel to respond with airstrikes.
The root of the latest escalation was intense disputes over East Jerusalem. Israeli police prevented Palestinians from gathering near one of the city’s ancient gates during the holy month of Ramadan, as they had customarily. At the same time, Palestinians faced eviction by Jewish landlords from homes in East Jerusalem. Many Arabs called it part of a wider Israeli campaign to force Palestinians out of the city, describing it as ethnic cleansing.
Intense political struggles for leadership of Israel and the Palestinians are part of the backdrop for the fighting. After four inconclusive elections in Israel in two years, no one has been able to form a governing coalition. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on trial on corruption charges, has been able to remain in office, and hopes Israelis will rally around him in the crisis. In Palestinian elections that were recently postponed, Hamas hoped to take control of the Palestinian Authority, and has positioned itself as the defender of Jerusalem.

Credit…Mahmud Hams/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

When it comes it Hamas’s military capabilities, much of the focus has been on the labyrinthine tunnels it uses to launch attacks against Israel or the arsenal of missiles it aims at Israeli cities.

But Israeli military experts and officials say there is another lesser discussed and murky threat: clandestine naval commandoes entering or hitting Israel by sea.

It sounds like a scene from a Cold War thriller: An undercover commando unit infiltrating a country with underwater shuttles in order to target an energy facility or a populated settlement.

But that was precisely the goal, according to the Israeli military, of a naval unit being directed by Hamas.

“Over the last days, Israeli naval troops spotted suspicious activity in the Northern Gaza Strip, nearby assets of the Hamas naval forces, and tracked the movements of a number of suspect enemy combatants,” the Israeli defense forces said in a statement.

They military said that the suspects were moving a “Hamas submergible naval weapon” that “appeared to be on its way to carry out a terror attack in Israeli waters.”

The military released a video showing Israeli defense forces destroying the vessel early Monday.

Shaul Chorev, a retired Israeli admiral who is Head of Haifa University’s Maritime Policy and Strategy Research Center, said Israel in recent years has been increasingly concerned about Hamas’s naval commando units. He said that undercover and surprise sea attacks were one way the militant group had sought to overcome Israel’s asymmetric military capability, including its mighty air force and Golden Dome defense system used to shoot down rockets fired by militants in Gaza.

“The fear is that these commando units can be used to target infrastructure like power stations or to try and infiltrate Israel by sea,” he said.

He said Israelis still shuddered at the memory of an episode in July 2014, during Israel’s invasion of Gaza, when four Hamas operatives armed with automatic weapons, explosives and grenades, surreptitiously swam ashore near Kibbutz Zikim, on Israel’s southern coast, and tried to target an Israeli tank before being killed.

Hosam Salem for The New York Times
Hosam Salem for The New York Times
Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times
Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times
Hosam Salem for The New York Times
Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times
Hosam Salem for The New York Times
Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times
Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times
Hosam Salem for The New York Times

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In the deadliest attack of the current conflict so far, Israeli airstrikes on buildings in Gaza City on Sunday killed at least 42 people, including 10 children, Palestinian officials said.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it had “struck an underground military structure belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization which was located under the road.” It added: “Hamas intentionally locates its terrorist infrastructure under civilian houses, exposing them to danger. The underground foundations collapsed, causing the civilian housing above them to collapse, causing unintended casualties.”

Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages on Gaza, an impoverished and densely packed enclave of two million people, have killed at least 198 Palestinians, including 35 women and 58 children, between last Monday and Sunday evening, producing stark images of destruction that have reverberated around the world.

Credit…Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times

Civilians are paying an especially high price in the latest bout of violence between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, raising urgent questions about how the laws of war apply to the conflagration: which military actions are legal, what war crimes are being committed and who, if anyone, will ever be held to account.

Both sides appear to be violating those laws, experts said: Hamas has fired nearly 3,000 rockets toward Israeli cities and towns, a clear war crime. And Israel, although it says it takes measures to avoid civilian casualties, has subjected Gaza to such an intense bombardment, killing families and flattening buildings, that it probably constitutes a disproportionate use of force — also a crime.

No legal adjudication is possible in the heat of battle. But Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages on Gaza, an impoverished and densely packed enclave of two million people, killed at least 198 Palestinians, including 93 women and children, between last Monday and Sunday evening, according to Palestinian authorities, producing stark images of destruction that have reverberated around the world.

In the other direction, Hamas missiles have rained over Israeli towns and cities, sowing fear and killing at least ten people, including two children — a greater toll than during the last war, in 2014, which lasted more than seven weeks. The latest victim, a 55-year-old man, died on Saturday after missile shrapnel slammed through the door of his home in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan.

With neither side apparently capable of outright victory, the conflict seems locked in an endless loop of bloodshed. So the focus on civilian casualties has become more intense than ever as a proxy for the moral high ground in a seemingly unwinnable war.

In one of the deadliest episodes of the week, an Israeli missile slammed into an apartment on Friday, killing eight children and two women as they celebrated a major Muslim holiday. Israel said a senior Hamas commander was the target.

Graphic video footage showed Palestinian medics stepping over rubble that included children’s toys and a Monopoly board game as they evacuated the bloodied victims from the pulverized building. The only survivor was an infant boy.

“They weren’t holding weapons, they weren’t firing rockets and they weren’t harming anyone,” said the boy’s father, Mohammed al-Hadidi, who was later seen on television holding his son’s small hand in a hospital.

Although Hamas fires unguided missiles at Israeli cities at a blistering rate, sometimes over 100 at once, the vast majority are either intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defense system or miss their targets, resulting in a relatively low death toll.

Israel sometimes warns Gaza residents to evacuate before an airstrike, and it says it has called off strikes to avoid civilian casualties. But its use of artillery and airstrikes to pound such a confined area, packed with poorly protected people, has led to a death toll 20 times as high as that caused by Hamas, and wounded 1,235 more.

Under international treaties and unwritten rules, combatants are supposed to take all reasonable precautions to limit any civilian damage. But applying those principles in a place like Gaza is a highly contentious affair.

Credit…Uriel Sinai for The New York Times

As the Israel Defense Forces strike Gaza with jets, drones and artillery, a key target has been a network of tunnels beneath the Palestinian-controlled territory that the militant Islamic group Hamas is known to use for deploying militants and smuggling weapons.

A spokesman for the Israeli military described the complex network as a “city beneath a city.”

The tunnels were also the main rationale that Israel gave for its ground invasion of Gaza in 2014. Israel’s leaders said afterward that they had destroyed 32 tunnels during that operation, including 14 that penetrated into Israeli territory.

At the time of that fighting, the Israel Defense Forces took reporters into a 6-foot-by-2-foot underground passage running almost two miles under the border to show the threat posed by the tunnels, and the difficulty that Israel has in finding and destroying them.

Here is an excerpt from what The New York Times reported then:

Tunnels from Gaza to Israel have had a powerful hold on the Israeli psyche since 2006, when Hamas militants used one to capture an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was held for five years before being released in a prisoner exchange.

The tunnels can be quite elaborate. The tunnel toured by journalists was reinforced with concrete and had a rack on the wall for electrical wiring. It also featured a metal track along the floor, used by carts that removed dirt during the tunnel’s construction, that could be used to ferry equipment and weapons, the Israeli military said.

Israeli officials acknowledge that it is a difficult technological and operational challenge to destroy all of the subterranean passageways and neutralize the threat they pose. The tunnels are well hidden, said the officer who conducted the tour, and some tunnels are booby-trapped.

Israel’s Iron Dome system intercepting rockets launched from GazaAnas Baba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Streaks through the sky left by the Iron Dome systemFatima Shbair/Getty Images
Ashkelon, IsraelNir Elias/Reuters
Ashdod, IsraelMenahem Kahana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Sderot, IsraelJack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Ashkelon, IsraelJack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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As the worst violence in years rages between the Israeli military and Hamas, each night the sky is lit up by a barrage of missiles and the projectiles designed to counter them.

It is a display of fire and thunder that has been described as both remarkable and horrifying.

The Iron Dome became operational in 2011 and got its biggest first test over eight days in November 2014, when Gaza militants fired some 1,500 rockets aimed at Israel.

While Israeli officials claimed a success rate of up to 90 percent during that conflict, outside experts were skeptical.

The Iron Dome was recently upgraded, but the details of the changes were not made public.

It is being tested like never before, according to the Israeli military.

Militants in the Gaza Strip have about 3,100 missiles, the Israeli Air Force said on Sunday, noting that about 1,150 of them had been intercepted.

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‘Fighting Must Stop’: U.N. Holds First Public Meeting on Gaza Conflict

The United Nations Security Council met to discuss the crisis in Gaza and Israel on Sunday but took no action, even as members decried the violence. Palestinian and Israeli diplomats spoke at the meeting.

We meet today amid the most serious escalation in Gaza and Israel in years. The current hostilities are utterly appalling. This latest round of violence only perpetuates the cycles of death, destruction and despair and pushes farther to the horizon any hopes of coexistence and peace. Fighting must stop. Remember that each time Israel hears a foreign leader speak of its right to defend itself, it is further emboldened to continue murdering entire families in their sleep. Israel is killing Palestinians in Gaza, one family at a time. Israel is trying to uproot Palestinians from Jerusalem, expelling families, one home, one neighborhood at a time. Israel is persecuting our people, committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. Some may not want to use these words — war crimes and crimes against humanity — but they know they are true. You can create false moral equivalence, immoral equivalence, between the actions of a democracy that sanctifies life and those of a terrorist organization that glorifies death, by calling for restraint, restraint on all sides, and failing to unequivocally condemn Hamas. If you make this choice, it will lead to the success of Hamas’s insidious strategy of firing at Israeli civilians while hiding behind Palestinian civilians. It will lead to the deaths of more innocent Israelis and Palestinians. It will lead to the strengthening of Hamas, the weakening of the Palestinian Authority, and the undermining of the chances for a dialogue.

The United Nations Security Council met to discuss the crisis in Gaza and Israel on Sunday but took no action, even as members decried the violence. Palestinian and Israeli diplomats spoke at the meeting.CreditCredit…Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times

International pressure to bring an end to the raging conflict between Israel and Hamas militants has intensified, with the United States stepping up its diplomatic engagement and the United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss the conflict in public for the first time. But the council took no action even as member after member decried the death and devastation.

Secretary-General António Guterres was the first of nearly two dozen speakers on the agenda of the meeting on Sunday, led by China, which holds the council’s rotating presidency for the month of May.

“This latest round of violence only perpetuates the cycles of death, destruction and despair, and pushes farther to the horizon any hopes of coexistence and peace,” Mr. Guterres said. “Fighting must stop. It must stop immediately.”

Palestinian and Israeli diplomats, who were also invited to speak, used the meeting as a high-profile forum to vent longstanding grievances, in effect talking past each other with no sign of any softening in an intractable conflict nearly as old as the United Nations itself.

Riyad al-Maliki, the foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority, implicitly rebuked the United States and other powers that have defended Israel’s right to protect itself from Hamas rocket attacks, asserting that such arguments makes Israel “further emboldened to continue to murder entire families in their sleep.”

Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, who spoke after Mr. Maliki, rejected any attempt to portray the actions of Israel and Hamas as moral equivalents. “Israel uses missiles to protect its children,” Mr. Erdan said. “Hamas uses children to protect its missiles.”

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, said President Biden had spoken with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, while U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had also been engaging with his counterparts in the region.

She called on Hamas to stop its rockets barrage against Israel, expressed concerns about inter-communal violence, warned against incitement on both sides and said the United States was “prepared to lend our support and good offices should the parties seek a cease-fire.”

While envoys from all of the council’s 15 members urged an immediate de-escalation, there was no indication of what next steps the council was prepared to take. Zhang Jun, China’s ambassador, told reporters after the meeting had adjourned that he was continuing to work with other members “to take prompt action and speak in one voice.”

Mr. Netanyahu of Israel vowed late Saturday to continue striking Gaza “until we reach our targets,” suggesting a prolonged assault on the coastal territory even as casualties rose on both sides.

Credit…Dan Balilty for The New York Times

In separate calls on Saturday, Mr. Biden conferred with Mr. Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, about efforts to broker a cease-fire. While supporting Israel’s right to defend itself from rocket attacks by Hamas militants, Mr. Biden urged Mr. Netanyahu to protect civilians and journalists.

Over the past week, the 15-member U.N. Security Council met privately at least twice to discuss ways of reducing tensions. But efforts to agree a statement or to hold an open meeting had faced resistance from the United States, Israel’s biggest defender on the council.

American officials said they wanted to give mediators sent to the region from the United States, Egypt and Qatar an opportunity to defuse the crisis.

But with violence worsening, a compromise was reached for a meeting on Sunday.

Security Council meetings on the Israeli-Palestinian issue have often ended inconclusively. But they have also demonstrated the widespread view among United Nations members that Israel’s actions as an occupying power are illegal and that its use of deadly force is disproportionately harsh.

Credit…Ahmad Gharabli/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Here is his full account of that night and the events that later unfolded.

Credit…Dan Balilty for The New York Times

There is no simple answer to the question “What set off the current violence in Israel?”

But in a recent episode of The Daily, Isabel Kershner, The New York Times’s Jerusalem correspondent, explained the series of recent events that reignited violence in the region.

In Jerusalem, nearly every square foot of land is contested — its ownership and tenancy symbolic of larger abiding questions about who has rightful claim to a city considered holy by three major world religions.

As Isabel explained, a longstanding legal battle over attempts to forcibly evict six Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem heightened tensions in the weeks leading up to the outbreak of violence.

The always tenuous peace was further tested by the overlap of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan with a month of politically charged days in Israel.

A series of provocative events followed: Israeli forces barred people from gathering to celebrate Ramadan outside Damascus Gate, an Old City entrance that is usually a festive meeting place for young people after the breaking of the daily fast during the holy month.

Then young Palestinians filmed themselves slapping an ultra-Orthodox Jew, videos that went viral on TikTok.

And on Jerusalem Day, an annual event marking the capture of East Jerusalem during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, groups of young Israelis marched through the Old City’s Muslim Quarter to reach the Western Wall, chanting “Death to Arabs” along the way.

Stability in the city collapsed after a police raid on the Aqsa Mosque complex, an overture that Palestinians saw as an invasion on holy territory. Muslim worshipers threw rocks, and officers met them with tear gas, rubber-tipped bullets and stun grenades. At least 21 police officers and more than 330 Palestinians were wounded in that fighting.

Listen to the episode to hear how these clashes spiraled into an exchange of airstrikes that has brought Israeli forces to the edge of Gaza — and the brink of war.

Listen to ‘The Daily’: The Israeli-Palestinian Crisis, Reignited

Rockets, airstrikes and mob violence: Why is this happening now, and how much worse could it get?

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Listen to ‘The Daily’: The Israeli-Palestinian Crisis, Reignited

Hosted by Michael Barbaro; produced by Austin Mitchell, Soraya Shockley, Robert Jimison, Annie Brown and Daniel Guillemette; edited by M.J. Davis Lin, with help from Phyllis Fletcher; music by Rachelle Bonja and Dan Powell; and engineered by Chris Wood.

Rockets, airstrikes and mob violence: Why is this happening now, and how much worse could it get?

michael barbaro

From The New York Times, I’m Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

[music]

Over the past few days, the deadliest violence in years has erupted between Israel and Palestinians—

speaker

Intense rocket fire from Gaza answered by Israeli air strikes, showing no sign of easing and—

michael barbaro

—punctuated by hundreds of missiles streaking back and forth between Gaza and cities across Israel.

speaker

Increasingly large numbers of casualties, including children, from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza—

michael barbaro

And now, on the streets of Israel, by shocking scenes of mob violence against both Arabs and Jews.

Today, I spoke with my colleague in Jerusalem, Isabel Kershner, about why it’s all happening and just how much worse it may get.

It’s Thursday, May 13th.

Isabel, I know there may not be a simple answer to this question. But what was the trigger for this eruption of violence in Jerusalem over the past few weeks?

isabel kershner

Well, one of the triggers for sure is actually a case of six Palestinian families who are facing a looming eviction by Jewish landlords from their houses that they’ve been living in since the 1950s in a very small quiet leafy neighborhood of East Jerusalem, not far from the old city.

speaker

In the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, the tension has been growing for weeks. Several Palestinian families face eviction from their homes. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] We are in the right. We are still resisting. We are staying here even if they don’t want us.

isabel kershner

This is a case that’s been bubbling on for years and years.

speaker

We don’t understand why Arabs are here. I don’t want any problems. But this land is Jewish and belongs to us. We don’t believe anyone, not the courts or anyone else.

isabel kershner

The Israeli government has cast it as a small private real estate dispute. But it’s far from that.

So you’re talking about families who were displaced and made refugees during 1948, the war surrounding the creation of Israel. And they lost their homes in what became Israel. And they moved to that area of East Jerusalem when the Jordanians were in control. And the Jordanian government actually offered them an option in conjunction with the United Nations Refugee Agency at the time. They said, we’ll build some houses in this neighborhood, a few dozen houses. And you can come live in them. And we will register them for you. And in return, you should give up your refugee status. And the families actually agreed to that and moved into the houses. But at the end of the day, somehow the Jordanian government never actually finally registered them in their names.

So then, in 1967, the Middle East war breaks out. And Jordan loses control of the land of East Jerusalem and Israel takes control of it. Israel after the ‘67 war annexed that territory. But that move was never internationally recognized. And most of the world still considers it occupied territory. And although there was an agreement between the Jordanians and these Palestinian families over these homes, the land they sit on now gets to be controlled by Israel. And on top of that, although this is now a Palestinian populated area predominantly, the land was bought by a Jewish trust in the 19th Century. And then in the meantime, religious trusts have sold the rights to a real estate agency, people who want to move Jews back into that neighborhood. And there is nothing more in the Palestinian mindset, nothing more upsetting than the refugee issue. So it just took on much bigger proportions. It’s not just about renting or an eviction order or a few houses. It suddenly becomes a national issue.

michael barbaro

So this is pretty complicated. But to summarize, these refugee Palestinian families were given these homes in the 1950s and told that it would be their home for good. But that didn’t happen. It’s still the case that legally these homes belong to Jewish landlords. And now those Jewish landlords are saying to these Palestinian families, we want you out. And in part, they want them out because they want Jewish people to control these properties in East Jerusalem.

isabel kershner

That’s correct. And they’re able to do that based on a 1970s law which allows Jewish property owners to reclaim property in the East side of the city. But then, on the other side, the Palestinians do not have the same recourse to reclaim properties they left on the West side of the city or elsewhere in Israel. So this has created a huge imbalance. And the dispute has gone from the District Court all the way up to the Supreme Court. And we were waiting for a final verdict in the case of whether the evictions would go ahead or not on Monday.

michael barbaro

So Isabel, about how does this legal conflict over these evictions spiral into what we are seeing now? How does that happen?

isabel kershner

OK, good question, because there are many, many other strands to this story. And I think one thing we have to look at is the calendar. We have been in a month that has been extraordinary in many ways. So on the one hand, we’ve had the month of Ramadan in the Islamic lunar calendar. And Ramadan, the lunar calendar, it moves. So this year, Ramadan fell from mid-April to now. So it also coincided with a month in the Hebrew calendar. And you also have quite a lot of emotive dates. You have the Memorial Day for fallen soldiers, you have the Independence Day, you get towards the end of the month and you get Jerusalem Day, which is the day when some Israelis, not all, are celebrating what they call the reunification of Jerusalem in the 1967 war. I mean, this is a day where the Israelis are marking conquering the eastern part of the city, placing the Palestinians in the city generally on the other side of the line in what became occupied East Jerusalem.

michael barbaro

Got it.

isabel kershner

And that can be a very provocative day as well because a central feature of it is what they call the flag parade, which is usually thousands of young right wing mostly Jewish youths who March traditionally on a very contentious route— right through the Muslim quarter of the old city to get to the Wailing Wall. And of course, that was supposed to happen also on— yes, you guessed it— Monday.

michael barbaro

So Monday of this past week becomes, through the eviction case and through the calendar, a kind of swirling collision of Palestinian grief and Israeli celebration and just a kind of powder keg, it sounds like.

isabel kershner

And we also had a lot else going on in the city building up to this day. Ramadan is a time when the city is very much on edge. It’s a time of religious and nationalist fervor for many people. And it started with several other potential points of ignition. So you had the police, for example, barring Palestinians from gathering at Damascus Gate. Damascus Gate is one of the most beautiful and historic entrances to the old city from the East side. And it has these steps and going down to a Plaza— a bit like a kind of amphitheater. And every night during Ramadan, traditionally every year, Palestinians come. They gather there. They break their fast. There are cultural events. And it’s a general kind of party, a festival atmosphere. But for some reason this year, the police banned anyone from gathering and sitting on the steps. They put up barricades and said it was for public order to allow people to safely enter and exit the old city. And this created huge tension.

[siren wailing]

So it actually turned into a battlefield. Every night, you would have the police trying to disperse the crowds there. Young Palestinians would protest. And it would end in clashes.

We also had what became known as the TikTok attacks.

michael barbaro

What are those?

isabel kershner

So there were a couple of Palestinian 17-year-old youths who filmed themselves for a TikTok video slapping an ultra Orthodox Jew while he was sitting on the light rail train. And it kind of went viral. And there were one or two other similar attacks. And people just took great affront.

And it ended up with hundreds of young Israeli Jews marching to Damascus Gate, chanting things, including death to Arabs. And in the end, you had the police acting as a buffer between them and the Palestinian protesters at Damascus Gate and pitched battles on both sides with the police. So that was one of the strands of great tension building up towards this Monday.

michael barbaro

So a very unstable situation is very much ignited by actions taken by multiple groups of people on the ground in Jerusalem, including the Israeli police.

isabel kershner

Right. So we come to Monday morning after all this buildup, of all these different tensions in the city in this very tense month. And we get to the point where we’ve had Laylatul Qadr, which is a very holy day for Muslims at the end of Ramadan when thousands of worshippers spend the night traditionally in the compound of the Aqsa Mosque, which is the third holiest site in Islam. And it’s also probably one of the most hotly contested sites in the world because it’s also the holiest place for Jews. They know it as Temple Mount. And it’s the location of two ancient temples. So on Monday morning, which is Jerusalem Day as well, there were Jewish groups who were planning, as they traditionally do, to go up to the Temple Mount on a visit. And the Muslim worshipers, many of whom, as I say, had been there overnight were expecting them, ready for what they would see as a kind of invasion on their holy territory on a very holy time of year. The police stopped the Jewish groups from going up. But what we did see was the police in large numbers raid the compound.

[interposing voices][explosion]

There are many different takes on whether they went in just to disperse crowds or they went in to stop stone throwing by protesters at the site that had already started or whether the stones only started after the police arrived. But whatever the exact circumstances, you ended up with a large police raid on the Aqsa Mosque compound.

And it ended in stone throwing clashes with police responding with tear gas, rubber tip bullets, stun grenades. And by the end of the main part of this confrontation, you have, on the one side, 330 Palestinians who’ve been injured, 250 who were actually treated in the hospitals. And on the other side, 21 police officers injured.

michael barbaro

So Isabel, what happens after this police raid on the mosque? How do Palestinians respond?

isabel kershner

So by the afternoon, we get an ultimatum from Hamas, the Islamic group that holds Sway in Gaza, saying, if the Israelis do not remove all their forces from the mosque compound and from the area of East Jerusalem, the Palestinian area where the evictions were about to take place, something would happen.

michael barbaro

And they don’t specify what that something is. But it will be serious.

isabel kershner

Israel will be paying the price.

michael barbaro

We’ll be right back.

So Isabel, about what happens on Monday with this 6:00 PM deadline from Hamas for Israeli security forces to withdraw from East Jerusalem and from the mosque?

isabel kershner

Well, clearly the Israelis were not going to comply. So we waited till 6 o’clock. And lo and behold, 3 minutes past 6:00, we’re sitting here in our office in Jerusalem. And suddenly, we hear sirens wailing, incoming rocket warnings. And within maybe a minute—

[explosion]

—we suddenly hear a series of booms. There’s a feeling that Jerusalem is under attack.

michael barbaro

So once this deadline passes, Hamas sends missiles over into Jerusalem?

isabel kershner

Yeah. They’re aiming towards Jerusalem. One was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome, the anti-missile defense system. Others actually fell in communities and empty ground in the hills West of Jerusalem. And nobody was killed or hurt, but there was some property damage. And this was highly unusual and clearly was not going to go without an Israeli response.

michael barbaro

And what is that response?

isabel kershner

Well, Israel had clearly been anticipating some kind of action from Gaza and always has what it calls a bank of targets that its built up. And Israel immediately began with airstrikes in Gaza. And now Gaza is a very small and crowded territory. So even if Israel says it’s targeting military targets with very precise weapons and taking all the precautions it can to avoid civilian casualties, inevitably there are civilian casualties as well. So from the beginning, the air strikes were deadly. There were two children killed very early on that night. And each side just kept stepping it up.

Israel taking down tower blocks in Gaza, multi-storey buildings that housed Hamas offices or headquarters of various types of Hamas. And Hamas again issued another ultimatum and said to Israel, if you hit any more civilian buildings, we’re going to hit Tel Aviv. And a huge, huge Salvo barrages of rockets began streaming out of Gaza and slamming into suburbs around Tel Aviv. Things have just been escalating all the way. So by Wednesday afternoon, two days into the conflict, we have at least 53 Palestinians killed, according to the Gaza health officials, 14 of them children, and more than 300 wounded. And on the Israeli side, you have at least six people who’ve been killed and scores injured.

michael barbaro

Isabel, it is often felt in moments like this that Hamas’s missile attacks, as terrifying as they are to Israelis, often fail to inflict significant damage on Israel based on the technology that Hamas is using and that the Israeli counterattacks tend to be much better targeted and more destructive. And the death toll seems to suggest that that has been the case so far here— a kind of disproportionate impact.

isabel kershner

Look, disproportionate is a term that is often used. I think there’s certainly— the circumstances that Israel has total air superiority in terms of its Air Force. The Hamas rockets are rather inaccurate. Israel does have the Iron Dome system which manages to intercept the authorities, say, about 90 percent of rockets that are headed to population centers in Israel. But the Gaza Strip is just first of all very crowded, very densely populated. The Israelis will tell you that Hamas operates from civilian areas within Gaza, making it very, very, very difficult to avoid collateral damage.

michael barbaro

At this point, is it fair to describe what’s happening here as a war, as war like? What is this?

isabel kershner

It feels pretty war like. If we end up with a ground campaign on the Israeli forces side, it will definitely be a war.

michael barbaro

And is there talk of a ground operation?

isabel kershner

Well, no confirmation of one. But some preparations seem to be being made. There are some call ups of reserves, there are some troops and vehicles moving down towards the border. So it’s not being ruled out. But it’s hard to tell. I think Israel won’t rush into a ground invasion because they are usually very costly. But sometimes, it’s part of the tactical war to signal that you’re ready for one, which could also be what’s going on.

michael barbaro

What are the leaders on all sides of this saying about this moment and how it might come to an end? I realize that’s a tricky question because both the Israeli and Palestinian leadership is very much in flux. But what are they saying about it?

isabel kershner

So we heard on Wednesday night a very strong statement from President Mahmoud Abbas— he leads the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and is a main rival of Hamas. And he was basically telling Israel, end your occupation. And we’ve been hearing more from Hamas. So Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas political leader, sends a recorded address to a Hamas affiliated television station—

ismail haniyeh

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

isabel kershner

He spoke about being contacted by Egypt, Qatar, the United Nations with some kind of talk of maybe working towards the ceasefire.

ismail haniyeh

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

isabel kershner

But he said, since in his view, Israel had started this, it was Israel’s responsibility to be the ones to begin to end it.

ismail haniyeh

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

isabel kershner

On the Israeli side, we’re hearing that we’re not done yet. The defense minister said on Wednesday, there’s no end date. And the night before, the Prime Minister also said, this could take some time.

[music]michael barbaro

So it sounds like from leadership, there’s not an eagerness to quickly bring this to an end.

isabel kershner

Right, it does seem that on both sides— they’re not rushing to end this. And it might actually be helping them.

michael barbaro

How so?

isabel kershner

On the Palestinian side, you have Hamas operating really in a vacuum with Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, who’s aging and weak, and Hamas really trying to reinstate itself using its currency of leading the resistance and defending Jerusalem, which is always a rallying cry on the Palestinian side. And on the Israeli side, you have a very confused situation because Prime Minister Netanyahu is currently standing trial on corruption charges. He has been unable to form a government after four elections in two years. And his rivals were working on trying to form an alternative coalition which would have seen him removed from office for the first time in 12 years. And I think we’re not sure how this is going to play out. But somehow, he might well be able to capitalize on this time as being not the right time to have a change in government.

michael barbaro

Isabel, we started this conversation by talking about the eviction case in East Jerusalem that, in many people’s eyes, lit the fuse that has now turned into this war like conflict. What has happened with that ruling?

isabel kershner

So the ruling was supposed to come on Monday. On Sunday, after the government had spent weeks saying, this is just a private real estate dispute, the attorney general finally stepped in and asked for a delay in the case so that he could study the materials, get involved, state an opinion. And the judges gave him a month, suspending the verdict for at least 30 days. This is one case where the Israelis stepped in to try and diffuse a situation. But of course, it was too little too late.

michael barbaro

So this ruling has been delayed, but not for all that long. And eventually when it comes out, it will no doubt influence the course of this conflict that has erupted over the past few weeks. But it strikes me as odd and maybe a bit ironic that the Israeli government has called this eviction case a real estate dispute when you could argue that the entire history of the Israeli-Palestanian conflict is ultimately a dispute over real estate— over land and over the idea of home.

isabel kershner

You certainly could see it that way. I mean, with all the security and national and religious aspects to this conflict that’s been going on for a century, at the end of the day, it’s about who rules territory where and who gets to call a place home. Yeah.

[music]michael barbaro

Isabel, as always, thank you very much.

isabel kershner

Thank you.

michael barbaro

The Times reports that as the conflict expands, rival mobs of Jews and Arabs are carrying out violent attacks in several Israeli cities and towns. One occurred in a suburb of Tel Aviv where dozens of Jewish extremists took turns beating and kicking an Arab motorcycle driver even as his body lay motionless on the ground. Another occurred in northern Israel where an Arab mob beat a Jewish man with sticks and rocks, leaving him in critical condition.

On Wednesday night, the United Nations warned that the conflict could soon intensify into, quote, “all out war“. And the Biden administration dispatched a senior American diplomat to the Middle East to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and to urge both sides to de-escalate.

We’ll be right back.

Here’s what else you need to know today. On Wednesday, during a closed door vote, House Republicans ousted Representative, Liz Cheney, as their party’s third highest ranking leader over her decision to speak out against former President Trump— his role in the January 6 riot at the Capitol and his lies about fraud in the 2020 election.

liz cheney

I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.

michael barbaro

After the vote, Cheney said she had no regrets and vowed that she would continue to speak out against Trump and seek to break his hold over the Republican Party.

liz cheney

We have seen the danger that he continues to provoke with his language. We have seen his lack of commitment and dedication to the Constitution. And I think it’s fair—

michael barbaro

And the company that operates the major fuel pipeline shut down by a cyber attack said that the pipeline’s operations had begun to resume. The shutdown of the pipeline had raised fears of gas shortages and triggered panicked buying in several states, including Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.

Today’s episode was produced by Austin Mitchell, Soraya Shockley, Robert Jimison, Annie Brown, and Daniel Guillemette. It was edited by M.J. Davis Lin with help from Phyllis Fletcher. It was engineered by Chris Wood and contains original music by Rachelle Bonja and Dan Powell.

[music]

That’s it for The Daily. I’m Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

Tags Conflict, IsraelPalestinian, Live, Times, Updates, York

World News

Israel-Palestinian Battle: Stay Updates – The New York Instances

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Post date May 16, 2021

Searching for survivors under the rubble of a building hit overnight by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Sunday.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times

International pressure to bring an end to the raging conflict between Israel and Hamas militants mounted on Sunday, even as local health officials said an Israeli airstrike in Gaza overnight killed at least two dozen people, the single deadliest attack of the current hostilities.

The dead included women and children, the Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement to The Associated Press.

On Sunday morning, rescue workers combed through the rubble of three buildings flattened in the Israeli airstrike as the hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians escalated to levels not seen since a 2014 war.

With the conflict stretching into its seventh straight day, the United States stepped up its diplomatic engagement and the United Nations Security Council was scheduled to meet to discuss the conflict for the first time on Sunday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel vowed late Saturday to continue striking Gaza “until we reach our targets,” suggesting a prolonged assault on the coastal territory even as casualties rose on both sides.

In separate calls on Saturday, President Biden conferred with Mr. Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, about efforts to broker a cease-fire. While supporting Israel’s right to defend itself from rocket attacks by Hamas militants, Mr. Biden urged Mr. Netanyahu to protect civilians and journalists.

Even before Sunday morning’s attack, Israeli airstrikes had intensified over the weekend, with an attack on a house in a refugee camp in Gaza that killed 10 members of an extended family, including women and children, and another that destroyed a high-rise that housed media outlets including The A.P. and Al Jazeera.

Israeli defense officials said the building housed military assets belonging to Hamas and they provided advance warning to civilians in the building to allow evacuation. No casualties were reported in that strike.

More than 170 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli airstrikes and shelling in Gaza, and 12 Israelis had died in Hamas rocket attacks.

Over the past week, the 15-member U.N. Security Council met privately at least twice to discuss ways of reducing tensions. But efforts to reach agreement on a statement or to hold an open meeting had faced resistance from the United States, Israel’s biggest defender on the council.

American officials said they wanted to give mediators sent to the region from the United States, Egypt and Qatar an opportunity to defuse the crisis.

But with violence worsening, a compromise was reached for a meeting on Sunday at 10 a.m. Eastern time, to be held via videoconference because of pandemic restrictions, and streamed live on a U.N. website.

The American ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said in a statement posted on Twitter after the meeting was announced that “the U.S. will continue to actively engage in diplomacy at the highest levels to try to de-escalate tensions.”

Security Council meetings on the Israeli-Palestinian issue have often ended inconclusively and served mainly as a platform for supporters of both sides to air their grievances. But they have also demonstrated the widespread view among United Nations members that Israel’s actions as an occupying power are illegal and that its use of deadly force is disproportionately harsh.

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Israel Strikes Gaza Tower Housing A.P. and Other News Media

An Israeli airstrike destroyed a prominent building in Gaza City on Saturday that housed media outlets, including The Associated Press and Al Jazeera. The Israel Defense Forces said it gave an advanced warning for civilians to evacuate.

We are shocked and horrified that the Israelis would target the building that housed A.P.‘s bureau in Gaza. They long knew that A.P.’s bureau was there, and they targeted it. Now, fortunately, we had a warning, and we were able to get our journalists out. We narrowly escaped a huge loss of life. We had 12 journalists in that building. And those brave journalists not only got out, but they were able to salvage much of our equipment because it’s important that we continue to tell this story. You see, that building provided the best vantage point for the world to see the events in Gaza, and now that building is destroyed. And we will work hard to continue to tell the world the important events of Gaza, and we will keep our journalists safe.

An Israeli airstrike destroyed a prominent building in Gaza City on Saturday that housed media outlets, including The Associated Press and Al Jazeera. The Israel Defense Forces said it gave an advanced warning for civilians to evacuate.CreditCredit…Hosam Salem for The New York Times

The prominent 12-story building in Gaza City that was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday not only housed the offices of media organizations including The Associated Press and Al Jazeera.

It also offered a vantage point for the world on Gaza, as A.P. cameras positioned on the roof terrace captured Israeli bombardments and Palestinian militants’ rocket attacks during periodic flare-ups in fighting — including over the past week.

“The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what transpired today,” the A.P.’s president, Gary Pruitt, said in a statement following the Israeli attack.

The leveling of the al-Jalaa tower, which occurred as fighting between Israelis and Palestinians spiraled on several fronts, drew condemnations from across the world. The Israel Defense Forces said that its fighter jets struck the tower because it also contained military assets belonging to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules the Gaza Strip.

Mr. Pruitt called on the I.D.F. to present evidence to support its allegation, adding that the news agency had operated from the building for 15 years.

“We have had no indication Hamas was in the building or active in the building,” he said. “This is something we actively check to the best of our ability. We would never knowingly put our journalists at risk.”

On Sunday, the I.D.F. tweeted that the building was “an important base of operations” for Hamas military intelligence, where it “gathered intel for attacks against Israel, manufactured weapons & positioned equipment to hamper I.D.F. operations.”

The I.D.F. — which frequently accuses Hamas of using civilians as shields — provided advance warning to civilians in the building to allow evacuation. The A.P. reported that the owner of the building, Jawad Mahdi, was “told he had an hour to make sure everyone has left the building.”

In the minutes before the airstrike, Mr. Mahdi was filmed desperately pleading with the Israeli Army, asking them to allow four journalists who had been filming an interview — with the father of four children slain in an Israeli strike on a refugee camp on Saturday morning — an extra 10 minutes to retrieve their belongings.

An Israeli soldier told him: “There will be no 10 minutes.”

Minutes later, the building was destroyed, engulfed in a plume of black smoke.

The A.P. said that it “narrowly avoided a terrible loss of life,” and that a dozen journalists and freelancers inside the building evacuated before the strike. The building also housed apartments on the lower floors.

Press freedom groups said that the strike — coming a day after the Israeli Army erroneously told foreign media that ground troops had entered Gaza — raised concerns that Israel was interfering with independent reporting on the conflict. In a statement, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists questioned whether the I.D.F. was “deliberately targeting media facilities in order to disrupt coverage of the human suffering in Gaza.”

A White House spokeswoman, Jennifer Psaki, tweeted that the United States had “communicated directly to the Israelis that ensuring the safety and security of journalists and independent media is a paramount responsibility.” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that he was “deeply disturbed” by the strike and warned that “indiscriminate targeting of civilian and media structures” would violate international law.

After the strike, journalists from other news organizations gathered near the rubble. Heba Akila, an Al Jazeera journalist who had been broadcasting from the tower when the warning call was made, said: “This is clearly to silence the truth and the voices of journalists.”

Israel’s Iron Dome system intercepting rockets launched from GazaAnas Baba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Streaks through the sky left by the Iron Dome systemFatima Shbair/Getty Images
Ashkelon, IsraelNir Elias/Reuters
Ashdod, IsraelMenahem Kahana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Sderot, IsraelJack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Ashkelon, IsraelJack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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As the worst violence in years rages between the Israeli military and Hamas, each night the sky is lit up by a barrage of missiles streaking across the sky and the projectiles designed to counter them.

It is a display of fire and thunder that has been described as both remarkable and horrifying.

The Iron Dome became operational in 2011 and got its biggest first test over eight days in November 2014, when Gaza militants fired some 1,500 rockets aimed at Isreal.

While Israeli officials claimed a success rate of up to 90 percent during that conflict, outside experts were skeptical.

The systems’s interceptors — just 6 inches wide and 10 feet long — rely on miniature sensors and computerized brains to zero in on short-range rockets. Israel’s larger interceptors — the Patriot and Arrow systems — can fly longer distances to go after bigger threats.

The Iron Dome was recently upgraded, but the details of the changes were not made public.

In the current conflict, militants in the Gaza Strip have fired nearly 3,000 missiles, the Israeli Air Force said on Sunday, noting that about 1,150 of them had been intercepted.

Credit…Ahmad Gharabli/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Here is his full account of that night and the events that later unfolded.

Credit…Gamal Diab/EPA, via Shutterstock

As the conflict between Israel and Hamas stretched into its seventh day, pro-Palestinian demonstrations were held in cities around the world, even as leaders across Europe expressed concern about a rise in anti-Semitic attacks.

On Saturday, hundreds of demonstrators in Washington marched from the Washington Monument to the U.S. Capitol in protest of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people and what they said was an inadequate response from the United States.

“People think they can be neutral about this. That’s absolutely wrong,” said Alexandra-Ola Chaic, 17, who traveled to the rally from Burke, Va., with her family, which is of Palestinian descent. “We have to do what we can to make this an issue that receives political support.”

The crowd that gathered was diverse in age and background, and included many families with young children.

Ruth Soto, 25, from Northern Virginia, came with her sister to show solidarity with Palestinians. She said the displacement of Palestinians felt personal to her because her family fled war in Central America to come to the United States illegally.

“We’ve seen the struggle, being displaced from your home,” she said. “This is a way we can help them.”

In London, a pro-Palestinian march on Saturday attracted thousands of protesters, and similar demonstrations were held in cities around the world.

At the same time, there was growing concern about a rise in attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions.

France banned a pro-Palestinian protest in Paris, citing the “sensitive” international context and the risk of acts of violence against synagogues and Israeli interests in the French capital.

Paris protest organizers pressed ahead on Saturday despite the ban. The police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the rally, which had drawn about 3,000 people, Agence France-Presse reported.

This past week, German protesters attacked synagogues, burned Israeli flags and marched through the streets chanting slurs against Jews.

Felix Klein, a German official tasked with countering anti-Semitism, said: “It is appalling how obviously Jews in Germany are being held responsible here for actions of the Israeli government in which they are completely uninvolved.”

Britain experienced a sharp increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the past week, a charity said on Saturday.

Credit…Adat Yeshua Messianic Synagogue

The Community Security Trust, a charity that records anti-Semitic threats, said it had received more than 50 reports of Jews across Britain being threatened and verbally abused in the past week — a 490 percent increase from the previous seven days. It said it believed that many more attacks had gone unreported.

Offensive phrases and slogans about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been shouted at Jewish people of all ages, including children, said Dave Rich, the charity’s director of policy. “When the conflict in Israel reaches this level of intensity, we always see increases in anti-Semitic incidents,” he said.

Credit…Dan Balilty for The New York Times

Israel’s top military spokesman on Saturday apologized to foreign journalists for wrongly announcing early Friday that Israeli troops had entered the Gaza Strip in a ground attack, insisting that it was an “honest mistake,” even after Israeli news outlets called it a deliberate deception aimed at luring Hamas fighters into Israeli gun sights.

Early Friday, the I.D.F. announced on Twitter that “air and ground troops are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip.” It later clarified that statement to say ground troops were firing into Gaza from Israel.

The spokesman, Brig. Gen. Hidai Zilberman, said he understood the “frustration” of journalists who reported as fact what turned out to be fiction. But he sought to assure Western reporters in Israel that no one was trying to turn them into tools of the Israeli military.

“Despite conspiratorial reports to the contrary in both international and Israeli press, this was not some elaborate attempt to manipulate the media in order to achieve a tactical victory,” General Zilberman wrote in a letter to the Foreign Press Association’s president, Andrew Carey of CNN.

“By definition and our guiding belief system, the I.D.F. Spokesperson’s Unit does not engage in psychological warfare and is tasked with conveying only the truth to the public, a mission we have devotedly undertaken for more than seven decades.”

Gen. Zilberman added no new details to explain how his office misled foreign journalists or why it had taken hours to correct itself. But he reiterated that the Israeli military’s relationship with foreign news organizations was “of paramount importance to us” and was “based on mutual trust and respect.”

The possibility that the military had used the international news media to kill fighters in Gaza prompted sharp objections from several news organizations.

“If they used us, it’s unacceptable,” said Daniel Estrin, N.P.R.’s correspondent in Jerusalem. “And if not, then what’s the story — and why is the Israeli media widely reporting that we were duped?”

For its part, the Foreign Press Association on Saturday protested an Israeli attack on a Gaza office tower that housed the offices of The Associated Press and Al Jazeera, saying in a statement that it “raises deeply worrying questions about Israel’s willingness to interfere with the freedom of the press to operate.”

Gaza CityHosam Salem for The New York Times
Tel AvivCorinna Kern for The New York Times
East JerusalemEmmanuel Dunand/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Sderot, IsraelAriel Schalit/Associated Press
GazaHosam Salem for The New York Times
Jaffa, IsraelCorinna Kern for The New York Times
Ramat Gan, IsraelCorinna Kern for The New York Times
Jaffa, IsraelAhmad Gharabli/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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A new round of deadly violence erupted in the Middle East over the past week, as Israeli airstrikes hit targets in Gaza and the militant group Hamas launched rockets at cities inside Israel.

Credit…Dan Balilty for The New York Times

There is no simple answer to the question “What set off the current violence in Israel?”

But in a recent episode of The Daily, Isabel Kershner, The New York Times’s Jerusalem correspondent, explained the series of recent events that reignited violence in the region.

The always tenuous peace was further tested by the overlap of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan with a month of politically charged days in Israel.

Then young Palestinians filmed themselves slapping an ultra-Orthodox Jew, videos that went viral on TikTok.

Listen to the episode to hear how these clashes spiraled into an exchange of airstrikes that has brought Israeli forces to the edge of Gaza — and the brink of war.

Listen to ‘The Daily’: The Israeli-Palestinian Crisis, Reignited

Rockets, airstrikes and mob violence: Why is this happening now, and how much worse could it get?

Tags Conflict, IsraelPalestinian, Live, Times, Updates, York

Health

Mint Drink Recipes – The New York Instances

Post author By
Post date May 16, 2021

Mint has a lot to say. This stubborn perennial gives food and drink a refreshing coolness, often with a bittersweet edge and sometimes with notes of pepper. It’s not subtle like some herbs and makes its presence known in everything from cocktails to candy, regardless of whether the context is savory or sweet. In all fairness, it’s hard to overdo its usage. Mint is also easy to grow in a window box or garden so the leaves are always on hand, especially in spring.

There are several types of mint, but the standard option is spearmint, which is less aggressive on the palate than peppermint. If you buy sliced mint from a counter or farmers market, make sure it has a nice flavor. Dried mint on the spice rack is often used in Persian cuisine, but it’s a fresh kind of spirit.

Mint is a wonderful flavor to add to coolers with warm weather. One of the best drinks on the cocktail menu at Cheeca Lodge, a resort in the Florida Keys, is a nojito, a non-alcoholic mojito that’s so sour-sweet and fragrant that you might not miss the rum. Mint also plays a role in Moroccan tea, usually served sweetened and hot but also deliciously frozen, and can add a cool dimension to smoothies. Refreshment is on the way.

Blueberry Nojito

Adapted from Cheeca Lodge, Islamorada, Fl.

Time: 10 minutes

Yield: 1 serving

8 green mint leaves

3 tablespoons of lime juice

5 tablespoons of simple syrup (see note)

6 blueberries

4 ounces club soda

Lime wedge for garnish

1. Lightly crush the mint leaves and place in a cocktail mixing glass with lime juice and simple syrup. Fill with ice. Cover with a shaker jar and shake for 10 seconds.

2. Pour into a tall glass (a Collins glass) and add blueberries. Top with lemonade, garnish with a lime wedge and serve.

Note: To make simple syrup, simmer equal amounts of sugar and water until the sugar has dissolved. Keep refrigerated.

Moroccan style frozen mint tea

Time: 20 minutes plus 1 hour of chilling

Yield: 4 servings

1 tablespoon of Chinese whole leaf green tea, preferably gunpowder

½ cup green mint leaves, wrapped, plus sprigs for garnish

¼ cup honey or more to taste

1. Brew tea with 3 cups of water in a teapot with a sieve and let it steep for 10 minutes.

2. Put the mint in a small bowl. Add 1 cup of boiling water and mix in the mint. Let it steep for 5 minutes. Stir in honey. Strain into a 6-cup jug.

3. Slowly pour the brewed tea into the pitcher and hold the teapot at least a foot above the pitcher – this is the essential Moroccan technique for aerating the tea. Try tea for sweetness and adjust the amount of honey if necessary. Store in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

4. Pour tea into ice-filled glasses, garnish with mint and serve.

Cucumber, mint and avocado smoothie

Time: 10 minutes

Yield: 1 to 2 servings

½ cup of green mint leaves, packaged

1 cup chopped, peeled, and pitted cucumber (roughly a regular cucumber)

8 ounces pineapple juice

1 ripe but firm Hass avocado, pitted, peeled and diced

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

½ teaspoon of ground white pepper

pinch of salt

1. Put the mint, cucumber and pineapple juice in a blender and stir until smooth. Add the avocado and mix again. Add lemon juice, pepper and salt. Mix briefly. To use a food processor instead of a blender, first turn the machine on and push the mint into the filler neck. Scrape the sides of the bowl, add the remaining ingredients and stir until smooth.

2. Pour into one or more glasses and serve.

Tags Drink, Mint, Recipes, Times, York